THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

96 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
2 FAY Will YOU haue any fine musicke?
3 FAY Most daintie musicke ?
Mopso We must set a face on't now; there's no flying;
no, Sir, we are very merrie, I thanke you.
I FAY 0 but you shall, Sir.
. . . . . . . . .
I FAY Wilt please you daunce, sir.
10. Indeed, sir, I cannot handle my legges.
2 FAY 0 you must needs daunce and sing,
Which if you refuse to doe
We will pinche you blacke and blew;
And about we goe.
They all daunce in a ring and sing, as followeth.
Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,
Thus we daunce, thus we daunce, and thus we sing a:
Trip and go, too and fro, ouer this Greene a,
All about, in and out, for our braue Queene a.
Round about, round about, in a fine Ring a,
Thus we daunce, thus we daunce, and thus we sing a:
Trip and go, too and fro, ouer this Greene a,
All about, in and out, for our braue Queene a.
Ye haue daunc't round about in a fine Ring a,
We haue daunc't lustily and thus we sing a;
All about, in and out, ouer this Greene a,
Too and fro, trip and go, to our braue Queene a.140
These two attributes of dancing and singing may, in
part, account for the fairies' popularity in the age of
Shakespeare when rounds and catches, airs and madrigals,
corantos and galliards were all the fashion.
It is possible, because of the fairies' numerous appear-
ances in the theatre, that there are fewer records in Eng-
land than in Scotland, of their other means of locomo-
tion, which was riding. In the translation of Huon of
140 Maydes Met., 11, 2.