Queen Mab
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Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. She also appears in other 17th century literature, and in various guises in later poetry, drama and cinema. In the play her activity is described in a famous speech by Mercutio written in iambic pentameter, in which she is described as a miniature creature who drives her chariot into the noses and into the brains of sleeping people to compel them to experience dreams of wish-fulfillment. She would also bring the plague in some occasions. She is also described as a midwife to help sleepers 'give birth' to their dreams.
Mercutio's speech
"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's wat'ry beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone; the lash of film;
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
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 court'sies 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;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as a’ lies asleep,
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier's neck,
And then 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 starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plaits the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune 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:
This is she—"
— Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene iv
In other literature
After her literary debut in Romeo and Juliet, she appears in works of seventeenth-century poetry, notably Ben Jonson's "The Entertainment at Althorp" and Michael Drayton's "Nymphidia". In Poole's work Parnassus, Mab is described as the Queen of the Fairies and consort to Oberon, Emperor of the Fairies.[1]
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem (1813) is the title of the first large poetic work written by the famous English Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822).[2]
"Queen Mab" is also the subtitle given to the 31st chapter of Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick, first published in 1851. In this chapter, Stubb, the second mate of the Pequod, describes to Flask, the third mate, the details of a dream in which Stubb is confronted by a merman who tells him that the kick Stubb received from Captain Ahab's whalebone leg the previous day should be considered an honour, as a great English lord would consider it an honour to be slapped by a queen.
In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the sexually deceptive Willoughby gives his prey, Marianne, a horse named Queen Mab, a symbol for Marianne's over-eager expectations of marriage in the travelling, womanizing Willoughby.
In J. M. Barrie's The Little White Bird (1902) Queen Mab lives in Kensington Gardens and grants Peter Pan (who has learned he is a boy, so he can no longer fly) his wish to fly again.[3]
Queen Mab appears in Charles Brockden Brown's novel Edgar Huntly as the nickname given by the title character to Old Deb, a Delaware Native American who refuses to move despite English encroachment. This nickname symbolizes her inconsequentiality, though she is a minor, yet powerful, figure.
American philosopher George Santayana wrote a short piece entitled "Queen Mab" which appeared in his 1922 book Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies. This particular soliloquy considers English literature as an indirect form of self-expression in which the English writer "will dream of what Queen Mab makes other people dream" rather than revealing him or herself.[4]
"El velo de la reina Mab" ("The Veil of Queen Mab") is a short story by the Nicaraguan modernist Rubén Darío that explores the artist's relationship with the world, as well as the beauty of artistic creation. The story climaxes with Queen Mab enveloping the four artists in her veil, "el velo de los sueños, de los dulces sueños, que hacen ver la vida del color de rosa" ("the veil of dreams, of sweet dreams, that make the world appear rose-colored"). In this way, Queen Mab alleviates the artists' sadness, giving them hope and allowing them to continue their creative endeavors.
In Jim Butcher's urban fantasy series of novels, the Dresden Files, Queen Mab is one of six Faerie queens and is the ruler of the Unseelie (Winter) court, second in power only to Mother Winter.[5]
Queen Mab also appears as a pivotal character in two Elizabeth Bear fantasy novels, Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth. In these historical fantasy works, Queen Mab is ruler of Faerie in the sixteenth century, co-existing alongside Elizabeth I. Morgan Le Fay, William Shakespeare, Thomas Walsingham, Christopher Marlowe and other historical personages appear in this novel. Mab's rule is linked supernaturally to that of Elizabeth I, her sister queen.
In the game, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Queen Mab is one of the several Personas the main character can use, is of the Lovers Arcana, and creates Black Frost when Cross Spread with King Frost, Pyro Jack, and Jack Frost.
In Martin Millar's book Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving (1994), the heroine, Elfish, wants to call her thrash metal band "Queen Mab". To get this name, which her ex-boyfriend claims for his own band as well, she makes a bet to learn and publicly recite Mercutio's speech.
Queen Mab also appears in the Vertigo graphic novel God Save the Queen, by Mike Carey. She is the primary antagonist; the story is based on characters seen in Vertigo's Sandman and The Books of Magic. An ancient woman (apparently a witch) appears throughout the Dark Horse Comics series Hellboy. In Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, this woman is revealed to be Queen Mab.
A fairy named Mab is one of the main characters in Francesca Lia Block's novel I Was a Teenage Fairy.
Queen Mab is ruler of the Unseelie Court in the 2009 novel Midwinter by Matthew Sturges. She is enemy to the Seelie Queen, Regina Titania.
Queen Mab is mentioned in The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray, when Felicity mentions that she will be Queen Mab for the costume ball. Cecily then tells her that that was what she was going to be and is quieted by Felicity telling her to find a new costume.
A more malevolent Queen Mab appears in Simon R. Green's Secret History series and also in his The Nightside series, having returned from exile to overthrow Oberon and Titania and reclaim the throne of the Unseelie Court.
In Lesley Livingston's series Wondrous Strange, Mab is the Queen of Darkness and Air.
In Magic Street by Orson Scott Card, the character of Puck suggest that Queen Mab and Titania, of A Midsummer Night's Dream, are in fact, the same individual, but Shakespeare did not realize it.
Film
Mab appeared as the main antagonist in the 1998 fantasy mini-series, Merlin. She is portrayed as a cruel, power-hungry, somewhat sociopathic goddess and the twin sister of the Lady of the Lake. She seeks to stem the rise of Christianity in Britain and maintain the Old Ways (pre-Christian paganism), as their power is tied to the peoples' belief. As such, in that retelling she creates Merlin, and then, when he takes up the Christians' cause, attempts to destroy him, such as by orchestrating the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot and the treachery of Mordred.
She is mentioned in the movie Fairy Tale as the fairy queen.
In the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, she takes the form of an ecstasy-like drug.
The Hungarian thriller webseries MAB is based on the legendary character.
Music
Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), the French composer, in 1839 composed a symphony entitled Roméo et Juliette that includes a Queen Mab Scherzo.
The 1867 opera Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod (1818–1893) includes the aria "Mab, la reine des mensonges (Mab, the queen of illusions.)"
The song "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke", of Queen's second album Queen II, written by Freddie Mercury, mentions Mab in the part: "Oberon and Titania watched by a Harridan/Mab is the queen and there's a good apothecary man."
In the off-Broadway musical Bare, a Pop Opera, an abridged version of Queen Mab is sung by the character Peter, who is playing Mercutio in the fictional school which is putting on Romeo & Juliet.
In the video for the single "(I'm waiting for the) Night Boat" from Duran Duran's first album, Duran Duran, singer Simon le Bon recites the beginning of the Queen Mab speech before singing his own original lyrics.
There is a track on the album HMS Donovan by Donovan Leitch called "Queen Mab," it is based on a poem by Thomas Hood.
Personal correspondence
Queen Mab makes an appearance in a letter from Henry St John to Sir William Trumbull: "I beg leave to assure my Lady of my most humble service, I kiss the hem of Queen Mab's garment..."[6]
Places
Queen Mab's was a popular coffee house and open mic venue located in the basement of the Presbyterian church in Rye, New York, USA, in the 1960s.
Video games
Queen Mab is a recurring demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series and the various spinoffs. Queen Mab is also the naming of the ancient alien villain in Martian Gothic: Unification where the first part of Mercutio's speech is quoted in reference to the character.
References
- ^ Rose, Carol (1996). "M". Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins. Norton. p. 207. ISBN 0-393-31792-7.
{{cite book}}:|format=requires|url=(help) - ^ Complete text of poem
- ^ Peter_Pan_in_Kensington_Gardens at Neverpedia
- ^ Santayana, George (1922). Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 145.
- ^ Butcher, Jim. Book 4 of The Dresden Files, "Summer Knight", Chapter 3
- ^ Adrian C. Lashmore-Davies, ed. "The Correspondence of Henry St. John and Sir William Trumbull, 1698-1710." Special edition, Eighteenth-Century Life 32, no. 3 (2008), 99.
- Butcher, Jim. Book 4 of The Dresden Files, "Summer Knight", Chapter 3