Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 3

In "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1), the fairy says:

"I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moon's sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green."

Again, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), Anne Page says:

"And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing Like to the Garter's compa.s.s, in a ring; The expressure that it bears, green let it be, More fertile-fresh than all the field to see."

And once in "Macbeth" (v. 1), Hecate says:

"Like elves and fairies in a ring."

Drayton, in his "Nymphidia" (l. 69-72), mentions this superst.i.tion:

"And in their courses make that round, In meadows and in marshes found, Of them so called the fayrie ground, Of which they have the keeping."

Cowley, too, in his "Complaint," says:

"Where once such fairies dance, no gra.s.s does ever grow."

And again, in his ode upon Dr. Harvey:

"And dance, like fairies, a fantastic round."

Pluquet, in his "Contes Populaires de Bayeux," tells us that the fairy rings, called by the peasants of Normandy "Cercles des fees," are said to be the work of fairies.

Among the numerous superst.i.tions which have cl.u.s.tered round the fairy rings, we are told that when damsels of old gathered the May dew on the gra.s.s, which they made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings, apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty.

Nor was it considered safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to the fairies' power.[32] The "Athenian Oracle" (i.

397) mentions a popular belief that "if a house be built upon the ground where fairy rings are, whoever shall inhabit therein does wonderfully prosper."

[32] Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 112.

Speaking of their dress, we are told that they constantly wore green vests, unless they had some reason for changing their attire. In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 4) they are spoken of as-

"Urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white."

And further on (v. 4):

"Fairies, black, grey, green, and white."

The fairies of the moors were often clad in heath-brown or lichen-dyed garments, whence the epithet of "Elfin-grey."[33]

[33] Ritson's "Fairy Mythology," 1878, pp. 26, 27.

The legends of most countries are unanimous in ascribing to the fairies an inordinate love of music; such harmonious sounds as those which Caliban depicts in "The Tempest" (iii. 2) being generally ascribed to them:

"The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand tw.a.n.gling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again."

In the "Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 3), when t.i.tania is desirous of taking a nap, she says to her attendants:

"Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song."

And further on (iii. 1) she tells Bottom:

"I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep."

The author of "Round About our Coal Fire"[34] tells us that "they had fine musick always among themselves, and danced in a moonshiny night, around, or in, a ring."

[34] Quoted by Brand, "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 481.

They were equally fond of dancing, and we are told how they meet-

"To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind;"

and in the "Maydes' Metamorphosis" of Lyly, the fairies, as they dance, sing:

"Round about, round about, in a fine ring a, Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a, Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a, All about, in and out, for our brave queen a," etc.

As Mr. Thoms says, in his "Three Notelets on Shakespeare" (1865, pp. 40, 41), "the writings of Shakespeare abound in graphic notices of these fairy revels, couched in the highest strains of poetry; and a comparison of these with some of the popular legends which the industry of Continental antiquaries has preserved will show us clearly that these delightful sketches of elfin enjoyment have been drawn by a hand as faithful as it is masterly."

It would seem that the fairies disliked irreligious people: and so, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), the mock fairies are said to chastise unchaste persons, and those who do not say their prayers. This coincides with what Lilly, in his "Life and Times," says: "Fairies love a strict diet and upright life; fervent prayers unto G.o.d conduce much to the a.s.sistance of those who are curious hereways," _i. e._, who wish to cultivate an acquaintance with them.

Again, fairies are generally represented as great lovers and patrons of cleanliness and propriety, for the observance of which they were frequently said to reward good servants, by dropping money into their shoes in the night; and, on the other hand, they were reported to punish most severely the s.l.u.ts and slovenly, by pinching them black and blue.[35] Thus, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Puck says:

"I am sent, with broom, before, To sweep the dust behind the door."

[35] Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 483.

In "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), Pistol, speaking of the mock fairy queen, says:

"Our radiant queen hates s.l.u.ts and s.l.u.ttery;"

and the fairies who haunt the towers of Windsor are enjoined:

"About, about, Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out: Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room:

The several chairs of order look you scour With juice of balm and every precious flower."

In Ben Jonson's ballad of "Robin Goodfellow"[36] we have a further ill.u.s.tration of this notion:

"When house or hearth cloth s.l.u.ttish lie, I pinch the maidens black and blue, The bed clothes from the bed pull I, And lay them naked all to view.

'Twixt sleep and wake I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw; If out they cry, Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh I, ho, ho, ho!"

[36] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Ill.u.s.trations of Fairy Mythology,"

p. 167; see Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," pp. 122, 123.

In "Round About our Coal Fire," we find the following pa.s.sage bearing on the subject: "When the master and mistress were laid on the pillows, the men and maids, if they had a game at romps, and blundered up stairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every one would swear 'twas the fairies, and that they heard them stamping up and down stairs all night, crying, 'Waters lock'd, waters lock'd!' when there was no water in every pail in the kitchen." Herrick, too, in his "Hesperides," speaks of this superst.i.tion: