Monday, January 10, 2011

O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

So I'm trying out for Romeo and Juliet tomorrow after school. Not good. I don't have my monologue completely memorized. I was only reminded of my audition by my friend-person, Etsie (also known as the person who cut my hair) when she typed out her monologue on her blog.

So I do believe I'm going to do the same as her to try and memorize it. I've got most of it down, just a bit of word order.

I'm pretty sure I mostly want to be Mercutio. I'm doing the Queen Mab monologue. In my opinion, it's easily the best thing ever written. That doesn't mean that I know what it means. And we have to know what it means. This is a cut-down version of it, because we only have to do twenty lines at the most.

Ready. Set. Go.

O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the faerie's midwife and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
Drawn with a team of little Atomies
Over men's noses as they lie asleep.
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
And in the state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains and then they dream of love;
O'er courtier's knees, that dream on curtsies straight;
O'er lawyer's fingers, who straight dream on fees'
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And thus being frightened swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.
This is the hag, when maid lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
This is she

I have to admit that after the soldier's neck part, I kept glancing down at the sheet. I don't think I've got this. Well, I've got lunch tomorrow and time after school to practice. Hopefully my friends will put up with me.

I think I need to type it out one more time. Maybe not with all the capitalization and punctuation being perfect, though. Because I totally went back and made sure it was all good.

O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the faerie's midwife and comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone. Drawn with a team of little atomies, over men's noses as the lie asleep. Her chariot is an empty hazelnut and in this state, she gallops night by night through lover's brains and then they dream of love. O'er courtier's knees that dream on curtsies straight. O'er lawyer's fingers who straight dream on fees. O'er ladies' lips who straight on kisses dream. Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck. So then dreams he of cutting foreign throats. Drums in his ear, so that he starts and wakes. And being thus frightened, swears a prayer or two and sleeps again. This is the hag when maids lie on the their backs that presses them and learns them first to bear making them women of good carriage. This is she.


Golly, that one was more from memory than the first time. I was thinking about doing it again, but my hands hurt and it's past midnight and I think I need to do other homework.

I'll start on my lists of favorites soon.

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