Mercutio

Play

Romeo and Juliet

Summary

Romeo's kinsman and closest friend, the play's most dazzlingly verbal character — a wit so brilliant and wild that tradition holds Shakespeare had to kill him or he would have taken over the play. His Queen Mab speech is an extravagant flight of fantasy and mockery that simultaneously reveals the depth of his imagination and his contempt for romantic illusion. When Tybalt kills him, the play's tone shifts irrevocably from romantic comedy to tragedy, and his dying curse — "A plague on both your houses!" — becomes its moral epitaph.

Notable Quotations

"A plague on both your houses!" *(III.i)*

"O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. / She is the fairies' midwife." *(I.iv)*

"Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man." *(III.i)*

Cross-references

• Romeo and Juliet — the play
• Tragedies
• character_romeo — his devoted friend whose love he mocks
• character_benvolio — fellow member of Romeo's circle
• character_capulet — the Capulet house whose Tybalt kills him