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Mab
The “fairies' midwife”—i.e. employed by the fairies as
midwife of dreams (to deliver man's brain of dreams). Thus when Romeo
says, “I dreamed a dream to-night,” Mercutio replies, “Oh, then, I see
Queen Mab hath been with you.” Sir Walter Scott follows in the same
track: “I have a friend who is peculiarly favoured with the visits of
Queen Mab,” meaning with dreams (The Antiquary). When Mab is
called “queen,” it does not mean sovereign, for Titania was Oberon's
wife, but simply female; both midwives and monthly nurses were
anciently called queens or queans. Quen or cwén in Saxon means
neither more nor less than woman; so “elf-queen,” and the
Danish ellequinde, mean female elf, and not “queen of the
elves.” Excellent descriptions of “Mistress Mab” are given by
Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, i. 4), by Ben Jonson, by Herrick,
and by Drayton in Nymphidea. (Mab, Welsh, a baby.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Mab from Infoplease:
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