THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

CHANGELING AND WITCH 159
summer Night's Dream was attended by Titania herself,
who
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her
In spite of the loss of human children, and of the
trouble and disappointment occasioned by the possession
of a fairy baby, the convention of the changeling proved
a valuable asset to poet and playwright, and to the
common folk. Did " riot and dishonour stain the brow "
of the Crown Prince, there was always the hope in the
breast of the King
. . . . . . . that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay.39
Should the suspicion of illegitimacy attach to a royal
princess, the child was saved from death by being left in
some deserted place with gold near it, and mistaken for
a changeling, as was the case with Perdita.40
Nor was the changeling less helpful when Elizabeth
was to be complimented with a husband:
The man, whom heavens have ordaynd to bee
The spouse of Britomart, is Arthegall:
He wonneth in the land of Fayeree,
Yet is no Fary borne, ne sib at all
To Elfes, but sprong of seed terrestriall,
And whylome by false Faries stolne away,
Whyles yet in infant-cradle he did crall;
Ne other to himselfe is knowne this day,
But that he by an Elfe was gotten of a Fay.41
Among the English folk the changeling did yeoman
service :
38 11, I.
39 Henry IF', Part I, I, I.
40 W. Tale, 111, 3.
4' Spenser, F. Q., Book 111, Canto 111, Stanza XXVI.