30
ON FAIRIES.
wise, a character in the old French romances of Huon de Bourdeaux, and Ogier le Danois; and there even seems to be one upon his own exploits: "Roman d'Auberon." What authority, however, Shakspeare had for the name Titania, it does not appear, nor is she so called by any other writer. He himself, at the same time, as well as many others, gives to the queen of fairies the name of Mab, though no one, except Drayton, mentions her as the wife of Oberon:
"O then, I see, queen MAB hath been with you,She is the fairys midwife, and she comesIn shape no bigger than an agate-stoneOn the fore-finger of an alderman,Drawn with a team of little atomicsAthwart mens 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 spiders web;The collars, of the moonshines wat'ry beams:Her whip, of crickets bone; the lash, of film:Her waggoner, a small grey-coated gnat,Not half so big as a round little wormPrick'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 fairys coachmakers.And in this state she gallops night by night,Through lovers brains, and then they dream of love.— This is that very Mab,
