THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ORIGIN AND NATURE 43
such creatures as we call Fairies, whome some imagine to be those
spirites that fell downe vpon the earth, and since that time inhabit
the seuerall corners thereof.6s
There is a reason, however, for the infrequent designa-
tion of the fairies as fallen angels, for they were tradi-
tionally regarded as outraged and dangerous whenever
they were called evil spirits. Especially is this character-
istic apparent in the encounter of Anne Jefferies with
6s E. E. T. S. ed., 1925, p. 39. This is the only instance I have
been able to find in the 16th century where the fairies are definitely
stated to be fallen angels. In this connection see also Nashe, Pierce
Penilesse His Svpplication to the Diuell, McKerrow ed., 1go4-1g10,
Vol. I, p. 229, where a likeness between these angels and fairies ap-
pears; Burton, Anat. of Mel., Vol. I, p. 206; J. M. Synge, The Aratz
Islands, 1911, p. 33; and W. P. Ker, in "The Craven Angels,"
Modern Language Review, Vol. 6, 191 I, pp. 86-87, states:
" It may be due in part to the Platonic demonology, as stated by St
Augustine, de Civ. Dei, VIII, mainly after Apuleius de Deo Socratis,
ultimately from the description of daemons in the Symposium. The
passages were well known; they may be found in the common-place
book printed in the Rolls edition of R, de Diceto, Vol. I, p. 46. Geof-
frey of Monmouth quotes Apuleius, in a chapter on the birth of
Merlin. It was from Apuleius that Chaucer got the ' eyrish bestes '
of the House of Fame; these are the ' aeria animalia' of Apuleius
and St Augustine - the daemons of the air -
many a citezeyn
Of which that speketh dan Plato.
The Fairy Genesis can be understood as a half learned transference
of this argument and belief from the aerial daemons (described by
philosophers and theologians) to the race of elves as known in folk-
lore -' far from heaven, and safe from hell.' The elves, with their
half human nature, need explaining as well as the Platonic daemons;
and the theory that explains the 'eyrish bestes' will do also for the
people of the f airy-knolls."