THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

92 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
These " Paroxisms of antic corybantic Jolity " 113
were the infallible mark of the fairy nationality and an
accepted means of identification: " they have so danced,
and jingled here, as they had been a set of overgrown
fairies " ; 11" " heigh, how it frisketh! Is't not a
fairy? " '' Like fairies, dance their night-rounds,
without fear ";'la " dancing roundelayes ouer the ples-
aunt meades." " . . . they dance in rounds in pleas-
ant launds, and greene medowes " 'I8 was the character-
ization made of them in I 592, to be repeated in I 621 as
" These are they that dance on heaths and greens." 'lo
And " Enter Fayries dauncing " lZ0 ushered them on the
stage and into the world of mortals.
To record the many dances of the fairies would be but
to repeat the number of their appearances. And what-
ever else happened to their attributes and to their race,
they never ceased to dance throughout the length and
breadth of Great Britain.
The fairies' dance was not an individual capering
but a ceremonial round. " Hand in hand, with fairy
grace," lZ1 they danced their " Hayes " lZ2 SO frequently
and so hard that they left their fairy rings " Whereof
113 Ibid., p. 16.
114 Jonson, Morley ed., Gipsies Met., p. 272.
115 Fletcher, Pilgrim, IV, 2.
116 Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, 111, 2.
C. Middleton, Chinon of England, p. 39.
Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, Vol. I, p. 232.
119 Burton, Anat. of Mel., Vol. I, p. 220.
Lyly, Gallathea, 11, 3. Cf. also James Shirley, Dyce ed., 1833,
Love Tricks, IV, 2 and The Witty Fair One, IV, 4; John Ford, Dyce
ed., 1869, The Sun's Darling, I, I; Palingenius, The Zodiake of Life,
trans. B. Googe, 1588 ed., Lib. 11, fig. B. iii.
12' M. N. D., V, 2.
lZ2 Drayton, Nimphidia, p. 125, 1. 63.