THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

16 INTRODUCTION
repeatedly to the fairies and elves; and the translation of
the four books of the Aeneid by Stanyhurst makes a num-
ber of references to hobgoblins. In the translation of
La Spiritata from the Italian, there are interpolated
among the spirits mentioned in the Italian original, the
native red and white fairy, Robin Goodfellow, Hob-
goblin, pucks, and puckerels.
At the same time in the plays and interludes, elves and
fairies begin to be referred to, as in Gammer Gurtons
Nedle, Misogonus, Jacob and Esau, King Darius, Com-
mon Conditions, and John Bon and Mast Parson.
Outside of the translations and plays, they occupy very
little attention in English literature. Googe, with the
exception of his translation of Naogeorgus, Turberville
and Gascoigne make no mention of them. The agricul-
tural poems of Thomas Tusser, with two exceptions, and
the earlier works of Churchyard claim no acquaintance
with them, nor does the Paradise of Dainty Devices, or
England's Helicon.
In Scotland, however, their presence and their traits
were not forgotten. On the contrary, belief in their
power and in their reality was so great that, in 1576,
Edinburgh witnessed the burning at the stake of a Scotch
woman for " repairing " with the fairies and the Queen
of Elfame, a spectacle which was to be repeated until
I 640 and later.
In I 575, " the Queen of the Fayry " played no small
part in the entertainment presented before Elizabeth at
Woodsto~k,~~ and, in 1578, at the entertainment accorded
her at Norwich, the fairies were represented in some detail
in an entertainment devised by Churchyard. At the
4"' The fairy lore of royal progress and of court masque and play
was probably launched at Woodstock on its successful career." C. R.
Baskervill, " The Genesis of Spenser's Queen of Faerie," Modern
Philology, Vol. 18, May, 1920, p. 53.