is, like
Shakespeare himself, an irrepressible wordsmith with an imaginative
flair. As they are walking to the Capulet's party, he tries to cheer up the mooningby evoking
the story of the tiny Queen Mab and the dreams she brings to people. Of course, dreams and love
are connected in a larger sense, as the beloved is always idealized, and Mercutio's speech about
dreams as being more inconstant than the wind (which always changes direction), foreshadows the
sudden change Romeo's love will take at the party:
True, I
talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but
vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant
than the wind...
As a foil to Romeo, Mercutio takes a
darker, more pragmatic view of love:
If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
Prick love for pricking, and
you beat love down
He's also
mercurial or emotional, as his name implies, and can't leave's
nurse be, pushing her into a rage by his joking wordplay...
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