THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

CHANGELING AND WITCH 157
to many Antick practices, and extravagant fancies "; 2"
or like Anne Jefferies, whom " the Extremity of her Sick-
ness, and the long Continuance of her Distemper, had
almost perfectly moped ... so that she became even as
a Changeling." 30
Indeed, so lacking were they in intelligence that the
word itself later took on a secondary meaning of half-
witted person, as, for instance, in The Changeling; 31
Anything for A Quiet Life; 32 The Diary of Samuel
Pepy~.~'
29 Dis. conc. D. M S., p. 510.
J. Morgan, Phoenix, Brit., p. 547.
31 Thomas Middleton, Bullen ed., 1885, Vol. VI, 2.
32 Ibid., Vol. V, 11, I.
3'December 28, 1667: Wheatley ed., 1893-1898. Fable 111, "The
Mother, the Nurse and the Fairy," of John Gay, Underhill ed., 1893,
Vol. 11, pp. 56-57, is significant in this connection:
" Give me a son. The blessing sent,
Were ever parents more content?
How partial are their doting eyes!
No child is half so fair and wise.
Waked to the morning's pleasing care,
The Mother rose, and sought her heir.
She saw the Nurse, like one possess'd,
With wringing hands, and sobbing breast;
Sure some disaster hath befell:
Speak, Nurse; I hope the boy is well.
Dear Madam, think not me to blame;
Invisible the Fairy came:
Your precious babe is hence convey'd,
And in the place a changeling laid.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
See here, a shocking awkward creature,
That speaks a fool in ev'ry feature.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Just as she spoke, a pigmy sprite
Pops through the key-hole, swift as light;