...he of cutting foreign throats, " Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, " Of healths five fathoms deep; and then anon " Drums in his ear, at which he...frighted swears a prayer or two " And sleeps again." (In the quarto 1597 the text had " countermines " instead of " Spanish blades," which seems singularly...

...inspiration from Mercutio's Queen Mab speech in Romeo and Juliet (probably 1591) [Shakespeare, 1967]: Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And...swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again. This is the very Mab, That plaits the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish...

...dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he...Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the...