QUEEN's "Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" describes a painting by Richard Dadd

This is an amazing Freddie Mercury's master piece inspired by a painting with the same title by Victorian artist Richard Dadd.
Watch the painting at:
http://www.googleartproject.com/museu...

From: http://www.aussiequeens.com/stats/9%2...

"The various groups in the lower circle, moving counter-clockwise from the Fairy-Feller are: Ostler, Monk Ploughman and 'Waggoner Will'; two-men-about- town: a clodhopper with satyr's head (seated), a politician, 'some fairy dandy', and his nymph, two elves, a pedagogue (crouching), and the arch magician behind; two ladie's maids, Lubin and his 'Chloe or Phyllis'; two dwarf conjurers. Along the brim of the magician's hat are Queen Mab and her cortege on the left, spanish dancers on the right, with Oberon and Titania and 'a harridan' higher up. At the top left are a 'Tatterdemalion and a Junketer' and 'a dragonfly trumpeter'; to the right are soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, ploughboy, apothecary, thief.

The following quote is taken from the gallery's guide.
--Excerpt from "Looking at pictures in the Tate Gallery":
ISBN 0 905005 61 9 (Tate Gallery Publications)
In a long poem, written about the time he finished it, the painter tells us that they have gathered at the command of the white bearded man in the middle with a gold hat and club. They are watching the Fairy Feller in brown who is about to split open a nut with his axe to make a new carriage for the Fairy Queen, Mab. Her tiny figure can be seen riding in the old one across the brim of the bearded man's hat
The idea comes from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" "Queen Mab .. comes .. drawn with a team of little atomies .. her wagoner a small grey coated gnat ... Her chariot is an empty hazel shell"