Who is Queen Mab?
ELACCL9-10RL9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how
Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).
Sources:
Lane, Barbara. Queen Mab. 15 March 2011.
<http://web.me.com/barbara_lane/English1/Class_Assignments_Projects_files/Queen%20Mab%20Information.
pdf >
Mabillard, Amanda. Romeo and Juliet: Queen Mab Shakespeare Online. 21 Nov. 2000. < http://www.shakespeareonline.com/plays/romeoqueenmab.html >.
An Historical Explanation
In Northern European tradition, fairies are believed to descend from the small, dark, Neolithic people who retreated to
remote areas, especially islands, to escape from the Iron Age invaders. Here they could carry on their agriculture and the
hunter/gatherer way of life from their round earth homes, using their flinted-tipped arrows and flint knives and spears,
sometimes known as eleven or fairy shafts.
They carried with them the tradition of worshipping the Goddess and became so elusive that tales grew up of their fairy
kingdom and powers of invisibility. These peoples became known as 'the little people', the fairies, and their reaction to the
metal swordwielding invaders is reflected in their legendary fear of metal, especially iron.
The deities of the Old Religion were also either demonized or translated into fairies. The
Goddess survived in myth and secret worship as the Good Fairy, the Fairy Godmother, or Queen of the Fairies.
Throughout a long period of history, Queen Mab has appeared in a numerous selection of differing guises, names and
manifestations. She has been known as Mab, Mabh, Medb, (meev) Medhbh, Maeve (maive or mayv) and sometimes
linked with the Morrigan, mainly through Celtic Mythology and Legend.
In the Celtic tradition, Queen Mab was also known as Queen Maeve. "Maeve" means mead and it was said that Mab gave
this blood red wine to all of her consorts. Mead wine was considered "the wine of women's wisdom". Medb symbolizes
the fertility and prosperity of Ireland. Other god-like qualities include her ability to shape-shift between young girl and
aged hag; animal attributes, in the form of a bird and a squirrel who perch on her shoulder; she can run very fast; and she
is able to deprive men of their strength simply by her presence.
Queen Mab in Romeo and Juliet
In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides through the night on her tiny
wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the most noteworthy aspects of Queen Mab’s ride is that the dreams she brings
generally do not bring out the best sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to confirm them in whatever vices they are
addicted to—for example, greed, violence, or lust. Another important aspect of Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab is
that it is complete nonsense, albeit vivid and highly colorful. Nobody believes in a fairy pulled about by “a small
greycoated gnat” whipped with a cricket’s bone (1.4.65). Finally, it is worth noting that the description of Mab and her
carriage goes to extravagant lengths to emphasize how tiny and insubstantial she and her accoutrements are. Queen Mab
and her carriage do not merely symbolize the dreams of sleepers, they also symbolize the power of waking fantasies,
daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all desires and fantasies are as
nonsensical and fragile as Mab, and that they are basically corrupting. This point of view contrasts starkly with that of
Romeo and Juliet, who see their love as real and ennobling.
Queen Mab in Literature
Mercutio jests with Romeo, musing that Mab, the bringer of dreams, has visited his lovesick friend:
Shakespeare's reference to Queen Mab, the well-known fairy in Celtic (Irish) folklore famous centuries before
Shakespeare, was the first known reference to her in English literature. After Shakespeare introduced Mab to English
poets, she became much loved, inspiring other great authors.
Ben Jonson recounted the tale of Queen Mab during his performance before Anne of Denmark (the wife of James I) as she
journeyed from Scotland to England in 1603 (his performance was later printed as Jonson's Entertainment at Althorpe).
The following is an excerpt relating to Mab:
This is Mab, the mistris-Faerie,
That doth nightly rob the dayrie;
And she can hurt, or helpe the cherning,
(As shee please) without discerning...
In 1627, Michael Drayton wrote a fairy poem called Nimphidia. Nimphidia, an attendant on Queen Mab, tells the poet
everything that happens at Mab's court:
And thou, Nymphidia, gentle fay,
Which meeting me upon the way
These secrets didst to me bewray,
Which I now am in telling;
My pretty light fantastic maid,
I here invoke thee to my aid,
That I may speak what thou hast said,
In numbers smoothly swelling.
This palace standeth in the air,
By necromancy placed there,
That it no tempests needs to fear,
Which way soe'er it blow it.
And somewhat southward toward the noon,
Whence lies a way up to the moon,
And thence the Fairy can as soon
Pass to the earth below it.
The walls of spiders' legs are made,
Well mortised and finely laid;
He was the master of his trade
It curiously builded;
The most famous work to feature Queen Mab is by the Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1813, Shelley wrote a
poem in nine cantos called Queen Mab. Cantos I and II focus on Mab in her time-chariot:
'I am the Fairy Mab: to me 'tis given
The wonders of the human world to keep;
The secrets of the immeasurable past,
In the unfailing consciences of men,
Those stern, unflattering chroniclers, I find;
The future, from the causes which arise
In each event, I gather; not the sting
Which retributive memory implants
In the hard bosom of the selfish man,
Nor that ecstatic and exulting throb
Which virtue's votary feels when he sums up
The thoughts and actions of a well-spent day,
Are unforeseen, unregistered by me;
And it is yet permitted me to rend
The veil of mortal frailty, that the spirit,
Clothed in its changeless purity, may know
How soonest to accomplish the great end
For which it hath its being, and may taste
That peace which in the end all life will share.
This is the meed of virtue; happy Soul,
Ascend the car with me!' (Canto I 167-86)