THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

182 THE FAIRIES OF SHAKESPEARE
mischievous and dangerous beings they were believed to
be, with occasional and erratic lapses into beneficence
and the bestowal of good fortune; instead, they become,
in actuality, the Good Neighbours which, in flattery and
in fear, they had been dubbed by mortals trembling be-
fore the idea of their advent. Every aspect of their
wickedness and every sign of their devilish connection is
omitted from their portrait,42 and the period of their
earthly materialization is devoted to making the world
happier and more beautiful,43 without any of the usual
impositions of taboos and without any of the usual de-
mand for worship or payment.
They do not appear from underground or from hell to
inspire fear. They travel from the farthest steppe of
India 44 to insure for the king of Athens and his bride
joy and prosperity, a future of faithful love and fortunate
Notwithstanding their past of spitefulness and ma-
licious meddling, they cannot now bear the slightest dis-
turbance of tfie peace, but, at the sound of vituperation
between Oberon and Titania,
imparted an entire new cast of character to the beings whom he has
evoked from its bosom, purposely omitting the darker shades of their
character, and, whilst throwing round them a flood of light, playful,
yet exquisitely soft and tender, endowing them with the moral at-
tributes of purity and benevolence. In fact, he not only dismisses al-
together the fairies of a malignant nature, but clothes the milder yet
mixed tribe of his predecessors with a more fascinating sportiveness,
and with a much larger share of unalloyed goodness. . . .
This love of virtue, and abhorrence of sin, were, as attributes of the
Fairies, in a great measure, if not altogether, the gifts of Shakspeare."
Drake, Shak. and His Times, pp. 502 and 505.
42 111, 2, 1. 388.
43 v, 2, 1. 30.
44 11, 2, 1. 10.
46 11, 2, 1. 14.