Peter Pan in Kensington Garden

Looking very undancey indeedIllustration by Arthur Rackham

The Fairies have their tiffs with the birdsIllustration by Arthur Rackham
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was originally part of an earlier work, The Little White Bird by J.M. Barrie. The Peter Pan chapters were extracted and published as a separate work in 1906. The color plates to Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by Arthur Rackham made the book immediately popular, and drew attention to Rackham, who was not well-known before then.

Plot Summary:
Peter is a seven-day-old infant who, "like all infants", used to be part bird. Peter has complete faith in his flying abilities, so, upon hearing a discussion of his adult life, he is able to escape out of the window of his London home and return to Kensington Gardens. Upon returning to the Gardens, Peter is shocked to learn from the crow Solomon Caw that he is not still a bird, but more like a human - Solomon says he is crossed between them as a "Betwixt-and-Between". Unfortunately, Peter now knows he cannot fly, so he is stranded in Kensington Gardens. At first, Peter can only get around on foot, but he commissions the building of a child-sized thrush's nest that he can use as a boat to navigate the Gardens by way of the Serpentine River.

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Although he terrifies the fairies when he first arrives, Peter quickly gains favor with them. He amuses them with his human ways, and agrees to play the panpipes at the fairy dances. Eventually, Queen Mab grants him the wish of his heart and he decides to return home to his mother. The fairies reluctantly help him to fly home, where he finds his mother is asleep in his old bedroom.

Peter feels rather guilty for leaving his mother, mostly due to the fact that he believes she misses him terribly. He considers returning to live with her and decides to go back to the Gardens to say his last good-byes. Unfortunately, Peter stays too long in the Gardens and when he uses his second wish to go home permanently he is devastated to learn that, in his absence, his mother has given birth to another boy she can love. Peter returns, heartbroken, to Kensington Gardens.

Peter later meets a little girl named Maimie Mannering who is lost in the Gardens. He and Maimie become fast friends, and little Peter asks her to marry him. Maimie is going to stay with him, but realizes that her mother must be missing her dreadfully, so she leaves Peter to return home. Maimie does not forget Peter, however, and when she is older she makes presents and letters for him. She even gives him an imaginary goat which he rides around every night. Maimie is the literary predecessor to the character Wendy Darling in Barrie's later Peter and Wendy story.

Throughout the novel, Peter misunderstands simple things like children's games. He does not know what a pram is, mistaking it for an animal, and he becomes extremely attached to a boy's lost kite. It is only when Maimie tells him, that he discovers he plays all his games incorrectly. When Peter is not playing, he likes to make graves for the children who get lost at night, burying them with little headstones in the Gardens.

via wikipedia.org

Queen Mab

Illustration by Arthur Rackham for 'Peter Pan in Kensington Garden'
Queen of the Fairies in English tradition.

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 lie asleep;

--Romeo and Juliet I.iv.

Mercutio's lenthy speech on Queen Mab portrays her as a tiny but regal figure, fearsom and wonderous at the same time. Her realm is the natural one, of spiders and plants and grubs, but with an unearthly air to them, manufacturing things from moonbeans.

Shelley also wrote a poem on Queen Mab, seeming to borrow from the themes of Shakespeare's play.

Queen Mab is thought to be a degenerated version of the Irish Queen Medb, from the Ulster Cycle. They share traits even aside from their names--both fierce queens of an otherworldly place (the Connacht of the Ulster Cycle is nothing if not fantastical), both incredibly independent, both incredibly sexual. Traditionally, Mab is said to have been married to Oberon, though Shakespeare, in A Midsummer Night's Dream changes her name to Titiana. Titiana's character may simply be a variation on Mab; like Medb and her husband Ailill, Titiana and Oberon battled over who was more powerful, comparing posessions and waging proxy wars.

Mab also appears in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, in a no-less powerful form, again as the queen of fairies, who eventually welcome Peter Pan into their company.

via maryjones.us