THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ORIGIN AND NATURE 35
good spirits, except when this adjective is applied to them
as a matter of propitiation or of fear,*= or to single
out some particular member of the race who is pleased.
for some reason or other, to show a favor to mortals.
This conception of the fairies seems almost incredible
when it is remembered that the Faerie Queene was
written in honor of Elizabeth, and that she was repeatedly
complimented by masques and entertainments
in which the fairies or the fairy queen appeared; and that
the fairy masques of Jonson were presented in honor of
Anne of Denmark and James I of England.
The difficulty of the fairies' wickedness in the case of
Elizabeth, however, was, in most instances, overcome
either by creating a new race of fairies, as in the Faerie
Queene, or by representing the fairies stripped of their
wicked and base nature, as in the Entertainment at Elvetham,"Vhe
Queenes Majesties Entertainment at Woodsto~ke,~~
or in the Queens Entertainment at Sufo2k and
Norf elk."'
Calender are an exception to this rule. The inconsistency between
the adjective used here in regard to them and the Glosse which ex-
plains " Frendly faeries" has already been noted. Spenser may have
had in mind an especial race of fairies, as in the Faerie Queene, or the
fairies here designated may have been friendly for the occasion.
45"These Siths, or FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good
People, it would seem, to prevent the Dint of their ill Attempts, (for
the Irish use to bless all they fear Harme of ;)" Kirk, Sec. Comm.,
P. 5.
46 John Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen
Elizabeth, 1823, Vol. 111, pp. 118-119.
47 Publns. of Mod. Lang. Assn. of America, Vol. 26, 1911, p. 98;
"This loue hath caused me transforme my face,
and in your hue to come before your eyne,
now white, then blacke, your frende the fayery Queene."
48 Nichols, Prog. of Eliz., Vol. 11, p. 186:
"And therewithall, the blacke infernal1 spreetes
Ranne out of hell, the earth so trembling than,