I can clearly recall where I was the first time I ever heard John McEnery’s impassioned interpretation of the Queen Mab monologue in Act I, Scene 4 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. During my first year of high school, after having read Romeo and Juliet we were watching Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation on a hot Wednesday afternoon somewhere between summer and autumn, when John McEnery’s Mercutio became an awe inspiring sight.
I was captivated by how the conflict appeared in person in relation to the text. These two men, these two friends, making their banter a public spectacle, were creating meaning and drawing me in.
All it takes is the line, “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you” and the story has begun. This line works because it follows Romeo’s statement of, “In bed asleep, while they do dream things true” which opens up possibility for this line shows Romeo’s naivety in thinking dreams are real, significant, and worthy of premonition.
I feel this scene represents the art of good story telling and also the art of introducing a character within a story who serves as a vehicle of taking meaning from pleasant and fanciful to something ominous and compelling.
The first time I viewed this scene I felt very inspired and moved to discover more. After studying literary theory last spring, I felt motivated to return to the study of dreams, fantasy, and how truth and fiction relate to the subconscious.
What would make Mercutio’s Mab something to be frightened of? How do we move from a Queen Mab of wish fulfillment to a figure that instills fear, anxiety, and hesitation? Well we return to the imagination and take a look back at what once frightened us as children because I have found creation is much easier when it is fully embraced and believed in with a thoroughness that can most specifically be compared to the imagination of childhood.
Cited: Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. Leonard Whiting, John McEnery. BHE Films, 1968. Film.
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