THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES 129
as some think, and as by the sequel it appeared, stroke lame by her
[Alice West's] sorceries, after which she presently repaired to him,
told him his purpose to blab the secrets of the fayries was come to
the eares of Oberon, for which he inraged, had inflicted this punish-
ment upon him.71
From this prohibition 72 of the fairies, no mortal was
considered exempt. In The Satyr, the gifts to the queen
of England, purporting to have come from the fairies,
were accompanied with the usual legend:
Utter not, we you implore,
Who did give it, nor wherefore:
And whenever you restore
Yourself to us, you shall have more.
Highest, happiest queen, farewell ;
But beware you do not
A strict compliance with the laws which insured the
privacy of the fairies' appearance and activities, was not
wholly sufficient to protect mortals against fairy interference
and fairy punishment. There were certain rules of
human conduct which had to be rigorously followed, if
the 16th-century house were to remain free from fairy
visitations, or the 16th-century citizen to remain untouched
by fairy fingers.
Their passion for cleanline~s,~~ as characteristic of
The Cozenages of the Wests, Hazlitt rpt., p. 227. Cf. also
Field, A Woman is a Weathercock, I, I, Dodsley, 1874, Vol. XI; W.
Tale, 111, 3; Wm. Browne, The Shepheardes Pipe, Hazlitt ed., 1869,
Vol. 11, p. 234; Massinger, 1779, Vol. 11, The Fatal Dowry, IV, I;
The Honest Man's Fortune, V, I.
72 This prohibition is very old, and is to be found in the romances,
etc.
73 Ben Jonson, Morley ed., p. 412.
74 It is interesting that Shakespeare, as a compliment to Queen
Elizabeth, has the fairies " Search Windsor castle " " within & out"
and scour " the several chairs of order " " with juice of balm." M.
W. of W., V, 5.