1. In Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet, Mercutio, like the Nurse, is long-winded. His most verbose speech is
his monologue in which he describes Queen Mab in a light-hearted manner that contrasts
to Romeo's heavy use of oxymorons as he speaks of Rosalind in his gloomy love-sickness,
and his emotionally charged romantic lines about Juliet. As Mercutio rambles on, Romeo
stops him, saying,
Peace, peace, mercutio,
peace!
Thou talk'st of
nothing.
(Mercutio's
monologue is in Act I, scene 4, ll.58-100)
2. This speech
by Mercutio is a testimony to his eloquence, as well. For example, his description of
Queen Mab is one of vivid and moving expression:
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes/In
shape no bigger than an agate stone/....Her wagon spokes made of long spinners'
legs,/The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;/Her traces, of the smallest spider's
web;/Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams;/Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash
of film;/Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat,/Not half so big as a round little
worm...(I, iv,58-70)
3.
Also, like his name, Mercutio is mercurial since, at the beginning of Act III, it is he
who ridicules Benvolio for saying they need to retire because of the heat, but then
himself becoming heated over trivial matters when Mercutio is the very one who changes
moods and becomes involved in heated conflict with Tybalt over Romeo's honor, a conflict
that proves fatal:
Thou art like one of these fellows that, when he
enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table and says 'God send me
no need of thee!' and by the operation of the second cup draws him on the drawer, when
indeed there is not need
(III,i,5-10)
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