THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

110 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
in his translation of Tasso's Godfrey of Bulloigne: or
The Recovery of Jerusalem,203 and by George Peele,
whose Battle of Alcazar mentions '' Fiends, Fairies,
hags " as inhabitants of " tormenting hell." 204 And to
the unknown author of Philotu~,~~" and to Sir David
Lyndesaylm9he domains of Satan were synonymous with
the realms of the fairy.
As far as the common folk of England were concelined,
the fairies were more familiar to them, as inhabitants of
England than as citizens of hell. The countryside was
surrounded by their hills and bore the marks of their
dancing circles. In any forest or at any well, they were
apt to materialize with their Queen, either riding on
white hackneys or dancing into sight from underground,
black, red, green and white, with figures " generally near
the smaller size of men," and the fairest of fair faces.
203 1687 ed., Stanza 18, p. 97.
204 IV, 2.
205 Stanza 132.
208Ane Satyre of the thrie Estaits, p. 532, 11. 4188-4189, and p. 402,
1. 732. Cf. also Thomas Dekker, Newes from Hell; and Comedy of
Errors, 11, 2.