THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS 77
rC un garcon, a boy; un paisan," and to be mistaken for
her and almost married out of hand by Slender and by
the doctor. Also among the fairies in the quarto are
Dame Quickly and Sir Hugh, the latter of whom, in
spite of the adjective little applied to the fairies, stated,
" I was Also a Fairie."
In The Masque of Oberon, presented before King
James, in 1610-161 I, the part of the Fairy Prince was
taken by Prince Henry, age seventeen, well proportioned
and of good height, and the Prince of Wales was " ac-
companyed with [modernized spelling] twelue others,
viz. two Earles, three Barons, fiue Knights, and two
esquiers." 40
The description and treatment of Mab and her fairies
who danced around Queen Anne at Apth~rp,~~ and that
of the " Queen of the Fayry drawen with 6. children . . .
the Boies brauely attired," 42 who appeared to Queen
Elizabeth at Woodstock, furnish no indication of any
variation in size from that of ordinary mortals. As far
as any evidence to the contrary can be found, the parts
of the fairy queen and her maidens who came into the
garden at Elvetham were taken by maidens of the ordinary
size of maidens.43
40 The Annales, or General1 Chronicle of England, begun first by
maister Iohn Stow, and after him continued and augmented with
matters forreyne, and domestique, auncient and moderne, vnto the
ende of this present yeere, 1614. By Edmond Howes, gentleman.
London, 1615; p. 9x0.
Ben Jonson, Masques and Entertainments, Morley ed., 1890,
The Satyr.
42 The Queenes Majesties Entertainment at Woodstocke, p. 98.
43Nichols, Prog. of Eliz., Vol. 111, p. 118. In the first day's en-
tertainment at Elvetham, six virgins took part, three of whom repre-
sented the three Graces and three, the Hours. As the number of
fairy maidens is six also, it would seem that the six virgins of the first
day's entertainment took the part of the six fairy maidens on the
fourth day.