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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 1Scene 4
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"courtier" and "suit"
Cultural Reference
Act 1,
Scene 4
Lines 68-76

An explanation of the reference to “courtiers” in the Queen Mab speech of Act 1, Scene 4 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Mercutio

And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on curtsies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;

The government of Shakespeare’s England was a monarchy in which Queen Elizabeth was an autocratic ruler. The courtiers were the prominent nobles who surrounded her at court. Anyone who had a suit, a request, to take up with the queen needed a courtier to help get access to her, much as one uses a lobbyist in Washington today. And like lobbyists, the courtiers expected to be compensated for providing this service.

(Elizabeth in Coronation Robes, artist unknown, c. 1600)