<P> Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, where "she is the fairies' midwife ." In the play, she is a symbol for freedom and also becomes Romeo's psyche after he realizes that he is also a floating spirit . Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema . In the play, her activity is described in a famous speech by Mercutio written originally in prose and often adapted into iambic pentameter, in which she is described as a miniature creature who performs midnight pranks upon sleepers . Being driven by a team of atomies, she rides her chariot over their noses and "delivers the fancies of sleeping men ." She is also described as a midwife to help sleepers "give birth" to their dreams . She may be a figure borrowed from folklore, and though she is often associated with the Irish Medb in popular culture, and has been suggested by historian Thomas Keightley to be from Habundia, a more likely origin for her name would be from Mabel and the Middle English derivative "Mabily" (as used by Chaucer) all from the Latin amabilis ("lovable"). </P> <P> "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 lies 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 --" </P>

In romeo and juliet who is queen mab