THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

94 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
togidder " lB1 in the confessions of witches, " And quhene
we heir the quhirll-wind blaw in the sey, thay wilbe commounelie
with itt, or cumand sone thaireftir." 13'
At other times, and most frequently in Elizabethan
England, they sang the measures of their dance in high
clear voices, which belated passers-by, once in a while,
would hear, " braue musick . . . vnder the green
hill" 183 shrilling from the ground or echoing in the
breeze from some midnight meadow.
How sweet these solitary places are! . . .
I cannot sleep, friend;
I have those watches here admit no slumbers.
Saw you none yet?
No creature.
What strange music
Was that we heard afar off?
I cannot guess :
'Twas loud, and shrill; sometimes it shew'd hard by us,
And by and by the sound fled as the wind does.
Here's no inhabitants.
It much delighted me.
They talk of fairies, and such demi-devils;
This is as fine a place to dance their gambols -
Methought I heard a voice.
They can sing admirably; . . . 134
Few were the times they appeared on the stage in
masque or entertainment without a musical accompani-
ment. In the Alchemist, for instance, the line reads,
" Bid Do1 play music," which, after an interval, is fol-
lsl Ibid., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 57.
13= Ibid., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 164.
133 The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, Act I11 E, Students' Fac.
ed., 1912.
134 Fletcher, Pilgrim, V, 4,