I just wrote a whole big post asking about the last 5 lines in Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech and then I did somthing wrong and it went away.
Well, the assingment is to “translate” the lines of the speech into modern terms.
Or we could just draw a picture.
But no one in my class understands lines 90-94, and the teacher wont tell us.
Your help would be very much appreciated.
So here they are, lines 90-94
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled much misfourtune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear
Making them women of good carriage.
I have researched it but have come up with nothing. I know lieing( please tell me if lieing is incorrect) on your back has something to do woth sex but what are “elf-locks” and “women of good carriage”?
Thank you. And sorry for sounding like an idiot.
Right on the sex in “lie on their backs”. From sex women get pregnant. They bear children. Another way of saying that is “she is carrying a child” makng her a “woman of good carriage.”
…Which makes this line one of Shakespeare’s puns. “Good carriage” usually refers to good posture. But as has been pointed out, here it refers to carrying a child.
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled much misfourtune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear
Making them women of good carriage.
I’m no expert (IANASS), but I am positive that the last 3 lines refer to midwives. Something from my HS education foggily mingles midwives with witches…
This is the hag
identifying the subject (the midwife)
when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear
who helps women bear their first child. I think the usage of “maid” here helps to fortify the idea that the person giving birth is a rookie. “presses and learns” may describe a rough course of tutelage.
Making them women of good carriage. -
Transforming them into women who can deliver their own babies.
More often than not in Shakespeare the context it really really important giving clues to veiled references in the surrounding text, exposing rich and illustrative wordplay, imagery, etc…but now having this play anywhere near to committed to memory and being to lazy to go look it up, this is my late bid.
Your assignment is probably already turned in, graded and returned by now- but I had to add my 2¢.
