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"Queen Mab"
Cultural Reference
Act 1,
Scene 4
Lines 51-54

A cultural reference to Queen Mab in myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4.

Mercutio

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 forefinger of an alderman,

Queen Mab is the queen of the fairies who bring dreams to sleepers at night. While a midwife helps deliver mothers' babies, Queen Mab helps deliver to sleepers dreams of what they’ve always wanted. But her name reveals that she’s not the nice, innocent creature we normally think when we think of fairies — queen was another name for a sex worker, and a mab is a promiscuous woman.