THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

194 THE FAIRIES OF SHAKESPEARE
Dream, however, was not immediate. Shakespeare
never again put this kingdom of fairies on the stage, and
the fairies of native tradition, unreduced in stature and
unregenerate of soul, continued to appear in play and
pamphlet, in night spells, and in folk tale. Yet the idea
of the microscopic miniatures of fairies who hopped in
the eyes and gamboled in the walk of Bottom the Weaver,
haunted their crcator. In 1595,'~~ Queen Mab in
Romeo and Juliet, the fairies' midwife, was described in
the same infinitesimal terms as Moth and Mustard-seed:
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 waggon-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 watry 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
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.lo4
This is the first time that the queen of fairies is rep-
resented as diminutive.lo6 Nevertheless, this new con-
1°3 Date of assignment of play by Tucker Brooke, Thorndike, Cham-
bers; Alden placing date 1593-1595, Adams, 1596.
lo' I, 4, 11. 59-73.
Io6 This is the first time, as far as can be ascertained, that Mab ap-
peared in English literature or in folk tale as queen of the fairies. In
spite of the number of attempts that have been made to discover the
source of Mab as queen of the fairies, nothing is definitely known of
her identity or derivation. For a full description of the origins of