THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES 139
More desirable than the possession of the power to
heal diseases was the knowledge of the future to be
gained by the fairies; " . . . they can foretell future
events, and do many strange miracles " los having been
" indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necro-
manticall science, bicause euerie thing came to passe as
they had spoken." log
It was this knowledge which Oberon made use of in
determining the future of Huon of Burdeux, which
caused him many a " sore wepynge " because he knew
" for certen " that Huon had " so myche to suffer/ that
therein is none humayne tonge can reherse it." 'lo It
was this knowledge, too, which Mab possessed, accord-
ing to The Satyr:
She can start our Franklin's daughters
In their sleep with shrieks and laughters;
And on sweet St. Anna's night
Feed them with a promised sight,
Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers.111
In Camden's Britannia, the future outcome of the dis-
ease called Esane was determined by the foreknowledge
of the fairies,l12 and, in Sir John Beaumont's An His-
torical, Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices,
a woman who "would generally predict " the death or
recovery of " any Person of the Neighbourhood,"
being ask'd by the Judge, how she came by her knowledge, as to
the Death or Recovery of Persons sick; she told him, she could
lo8 Burton, Anat. of Mel., Vol. I, p. 208.
log
Shak. Holinshed, p. 24.
11° Huon of Burdeux, E. E. T. S. ed., Vol. I, pt. I, p. 154.
Jonson, Morley ed., p. 410.
112 Ireland, Holland trans., p. 147.