We have already mentioned how Queen Mab had the same mischievous humor in her composition, which is described by Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 4):
“This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.”
Another reprehensible practice attributed to the fairies was that of carrying off and exchanging children, such being designated changelings.[45] The special agent in transactions of the sort was also Queen Mab, and hence Mercutio says:
“She is the fairies’ midwife.”
And “she is so called,” says Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, “because it was her supposed custom to steal new-born babes in the night and leave others in their place.” Mr. Steevens gives a different interpretation to this line, and says, “It does not mean that she was the midwife to the fairies, but that she was the person among the fairies whose department it was to deliver the fancies of sleeping men in their dreams, those children of an idle brain.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of ‘A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,’” 1845, p. xiii.
[2] “Fairy Mythology,” p. 325.
[3] Aldis Wright’s “Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” 1877, Preface, pp. xv., xvi.; Ritson’s “Fairy Mythology,” 1875, pp. 22, 23.
[4] Essay on Fairies in “Fairy Mythology of Shakspeare,” p. 23.