THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES 135
However impeccable the Elizabethan manners and
morals, there was little escape from the fairies' one
practical joke - that of leading " poore Trauellers out
of their way notoriously." This misadventure seems
to have been most frequent, judging from the number of
times it is referred to, as in The Pilgrim:
I am founder'd, melted; some fairy thing or other
Has led me dancing; the devil has haunted me
I' th' likeness of a voice; 92
or in If You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, The
Second Part :
HOBSON. Mother a me, what a thick mist is here?
I walked abroad to take the mornings aire,
And I am out of knowledge. . . .
Ha, ha! I smile at my owne foolery.
Now I remember mine old grandmother
Would talk of fairies and hobgoblins,
That would lead milkmaids ouer hedge and ditch,
Make them milk their neighbours kine; 95
or in Clobery's Divine Glimpses of a Maiden Muse:
Thy fairie elves, who thee mislead with stories
Into the mire, then at thy folly smile,
Yea, clap their hands for joy; 94
and the number of times it is represented on the stage, as
91 Nashe, Terr. of the Night, Vol. I, p. 347.
92 Fletcher, 111, r.
98 Thomas Heywood, Pearson rpt., 1874, pp. 302-303.
04 1659 ed., p. 73: rpt. in Halliwell, Illustrations of the Fairy My-
thology of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shak. Soc., 1845, p. xvii.