THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

INTRODUCTION
Since the publication of the first textual criticism of
Shakespeare's plays, the fairy mythology of Shakespeare
and the popular fairy mythology of the 16th century and
the difference and likeness between them have been sub-
jects for scholarly research and discussion. The earlier
as well as the later editors of Shakespeare in the 18th
century made no distinction between the two conceptions
of fairyland, but assumed that the fairies created by
Shakespeare, the diminutive and benevolent fairies of A
Midsummer Night's Dream being regarded as represent-
ative of all the fairies of Shakespeare, were the fairies
of English tradition and rural belief. Several of the
notes of Dr. Johnson l sum up the opinion which pre-
vailed, especially his comment on the song of Ariel, as
follows :
The reason for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he
and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an order of
beings to which tradition has always ascribed a sort of diminutive
agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick control-
ment of nature, well expressed by the songs of ArieL2
Joseph Ritson, in the first modern critical investigation
and discussion of the fairies of England,3 found no differ-
IThe'definition of a fairy in the Dictionary of Dr. Johnson is sig-
nificant: a fairy is a " Fabled being supposed to appear in a diminu-
tive huknan form, and to dance in the meadows, and reward cleanliness
in houses." London, 1866 ed.
The Plays of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes . . . to which
are added Notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens, London,
1778, Vol. I: The Tempest, p. 34, footnote.
3 Fairy Tales, Now First Collected: to which are prefixed Two
Dissertations: I. On Pygmies. 2. On Fairies. London, 1831.