Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 4

"If ye will with Mab find grace, Set each platter in his place; Rake the fire up, and set Water in, ere sun be set, Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies, s.l.u.ts are loathesome to the fairies: Sweep your house; who doth not so, Mab will pinch her by the toe."

While the belief in the power of fairies existed, they were supposed to perform much good service to mankind. Thus, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Oberon says:

"With this field-dew consecrate, Every fairy take his gait; And each several chamber bless, Through this palace, with sweet peace; And the owner of it blest, Ever shall in safety rest"-

the object of their blessing being to bring peace upon the house of Theseus. Mr. Douce[37] remarks that the great influence which the belief in fairies had on the popular mind "gave so much offence to the holy monks and friars, that they determined to exert all their power to expel these imaginary beings from the minds of the people, by taking the office of the fairies' benedictions entirely into their own hands;" a proof of which we have in Chaucer's "Wife of Bath:"

"I speke of many hundred yeres ago; But now can no man see non elves mo, For now the grete charitee and prayeres Of limitoures and other holy freres That serchen every land and every streme, As thikke as motes in the sonne beme, Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures, Citees and burghes, castles highe and toures, Thropes and bernes, shepenes and dairies, This maketh that ther ben no faeries: For ther as wont to walken was an elf Ther walketh now the limitour himself."

[37] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," pp. 126, 127.

Macbeth, too (v. 8), in his encounter with Macduff, says:

"I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born."

In the days of chivalry, the champion's arms were ceremoniously blessed, each taking an oath that he used no charmed weapon. In Spenser's "Fairy Queen" (book i. canto 4) we read:

"he bears a charmed shield, And eke enchanted arms, that none can pierce."

Fairies were amazingly expeditious in their journeys. Thus, Puck goes "swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow," and in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" he answers Oberon, who was about to send him on a secret expedition:

"I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes."

Again, the same fairy addresses him:

"Fairy king, attend, and mark: I do hear the morning lark.

_Oberon._ Then, my queen, in silence sad, Trip we after the night's shade: We the globe can compa.s.s soon, Swifter than the wand'ring moon."

Once more, Puck says:

"My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger," etc.

It was fatal, if we may believe Falstaff in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v.

5) to speak to a fairy: "They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die."

Fairies are accustomed to enrich their favorites; and in "A Winter's Tale" (iii. 3) the shepherd says: "It was told me I should be rich by the fairies;"[38] and in "Cymbeline" (v. 4), Posthumus, on waking and finding the mysterious paper, exclaims:

"What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!

Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment n.o.bler than that it covers," etc.

[38] See Croker's "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland," p. 316.

At the same time, however, it was unlucky to reveal their acts of generosity, as the shepherd further tells us: "This is fairy gold, boy; and 'twill prove so; up with't, keep it close, home, home, the next way.

We are lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy."

The necessity of secrecy in fairy transactions of this kind is ill.u.s.trated in Ma.s.singer and Field's play of "The Fatal Dowry," 1632 (iv. 1),[39] where Romont says:

"But not a word o' it; 'tis fairies' treasure, Which, but reveal'd, brings on the blabber's ruin."

[39] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 493.

Among the many other good qualities belonging to the fairy tribe, we are told that they were humanely attentive to the youthful dead.[40] Thus Guiderius, in "Cymbeline," thinking that Imogen is dead (iv. 2), says:

"With female fairies will his tomb be haunted, And worms will not come to thee;"[41]

there having been a popular notion that where fairies resorted no noxious creature could be found.

[40] Ritson's "Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare," 1875, p. 29.

[41] Some copies read _them_.

In the pathetic dirge of Collins a similar allusion is made:

"No wither'd witch shall here be seen, No goblin lead their nightly crew; The female fays shall haunt the green, And dress thy grave with pearly dew."

It seems, however, that they were also supposed to be malignant; but this, "it may be," says Mr. Ritson, "was merely calumny, as being utterly inconsistent with their general character, which was singularly innocent and amiable." Thus, when Imogen, in "Cymbeline" (ii. 2), prays on going to sleep,

"From fairies and the tempters of the night, Guard me, beseech ye,"[42]

it must have been, says Mr. Ritson,[43] the _incubus_ she was so afraid of.

[42] We may compare Banquo's words in "Macbeth" (ii. 1):

"Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose."

[43] "Fairy Mythology," pp. 27, 28.

Hamlet, too, notices this imputed malignity of the fairies (i. 1):

"Then no planet strikes, Nor fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm."[44]

[44] "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 2) some critics read:

"A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough."

That the fairies, however, were fond of indulging in mischievous sport at the expense of mortals is beyond all doubt, the merry pranks of Puck or Robin Goodfellow fully ill.u.s.trating this item of our fairy-lore.

Thus, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1) this playful fairy says:

"I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile, When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her b.u.m, down topples she, And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough."

A fairy, in another pa.s.sage, asks Robin:

"Are you not he That frights the maidens of the villagery,