Rom. 1.4 assignment
1.1 How does Czerny describe his change in approaching the performance of this speech? What did he discover about the character of Mercutio?
1.2 What other performance of the speech does he reference? Find the other performance and compare and contrast the two.
1.3 List any emotional shifts you perceive in the speech. What emotional state does Mercutio appear to be in when he is interrupted by Romeo?
2) List all the types of dreamers that Mercutio describes in this speech.
2.1 What do their dreams reveal about each one of them?
2.2 Who receives the most attention? Who receives the least?
2.3 How does Mercutio's attitude toward gender inform his descriptions of the dreamers?
3) Create a visualization of Queen Mab's coach (using drawing apps or as a hard copy).
3.1 What analogues in nature does Mercutio find for the physical components of Mab's coach?
3.2 Describe the labor involved in building and operating the coach.
4) Compare Mercutio's perspective on dreams at 1.4.103-110 to Romeo's account of his dream in 5.1.1-12:
ROMEO
If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne,
And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
(Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to
think!)
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor.
Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed
When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!
4.1 What kind of authority do dreams have? What kind of power do they have over the dreamer?
4.2 Whose perspective do you agree with? What kind of relationship do dreams have to the play's reality?