[396] The origin of Mab is very uncertain; it may be a contraction of Habundia, see below _France_. "Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of Shakspeare, "is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled by the word _queen_, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish, designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. [Old English: cþen] woman, whence both _queen_ and _quean_. Voss is perhaps right and _elf-queen_ may have been used in the same manner as the Danish _Elle-quinde_, _Elle-kone_ for the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p. 11) using _Fairy-queen_, as a translation for _Nympha_. [397] _i. e._, Night-mare. "Many times," says Gull the fairy, "I get on men and women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain; for which they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare." _Merry Pranks_, etc. p. 42. [398] Auræque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque, Dîque omnes nemorum, dîque omnes noctis, adeste. _Ovid, Met._ l. vii. 198. Ye ayres and winds, ye _elves_ of hills, of brooks, of woods, alone, Of standing lakes, and of the night--approach ye everich one. GOLDING. Golding seems to have regarded, by chance or with knowledge, the Elves as a higher species than the Fairies. Misled by the word _elves_, Shakspeare makes sad confusion of classic and Gothic mythology. [399] _Take_ signifies here, to strike, to injure. And there he blasts the tree and _takes_ the cattle. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, iv. 4. Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken. SURREY, _Poems_, p. 13, Ald. edit. In our old poetry _take_ also signifies, to give. [400] But not a word of it,--'tis fairies' treasure, Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin. MASSINGER, _Fatal Dowry_, Act iv. sc. 1. A prince's secrets are like fairy favours, Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered. _Honest Man's Fortune._ [401] We do not recollect having met with any account of this prank; but Jonson is usually so correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the popular belief. [402] Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony is, we believe, still practised in the north of England on St. Agnes' night. See Brand, i. 34. [403] Shakespeare gives different colours to the Fairies; and in some places they are still thought to be white. See p. 306. [404] Act i. sc. 5. R. Dodsley's Old Plays, vii. p. 394. We quote this as the first notice we have met of the red caps of the fairies. [405] Brown, their author, was a native of Devon, the Pixy region; hence their accordance with the Pixy legends given above.