ABSTRACT
Mercutio is a master of rhetoric, and here he uses rhetorical repetitions to emphasize the key words. It is not necessary to remember their formidable names, but it is important to understand how they function in an aural medium. Romeo tells Mercutio that 'he dreamt a dream' last night; Mercutio gets the better of him by suggesting 'that dreamers often lie'. Romeo protests that 'they do dream things true'. Mercutio now extends this theme to top Romeo with an extended improvisation on the fairy Mab, the midwife of dreams. Mercutio's long speech can be best parsed by separating it into sections based on Shakespeare's use of anaphora: beginning clauses with the same word or words helps the audience hear the speech as a series of lists. In Shakespeare's time, Elizabethans used rhetoric to help us hear the units of thought, instead of grammar. Brian Vickers in his excellent, concise introduction to rhetoric describes a number of rhetorical devices.
