THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES
Then must I watch if any be
Forcing of a chastity;
If I find it, then in haste
Give my wreathed horn a blast,
And the fairies all will run,
Wildly dancing by the moon,
And will pinch him to the bone,
Till his lustful thoughts be
and used in Merry Wives of Windsor with such unmistak-
able intention that there seems little reason to doubt that
it was Shakespeare's knowledge of the fairies' aversion
to licentiousness which caused him to expose Falstaff to
their mercy as the climax of the comedy. Nowhere is
there a better exhibition of the fairies' attitude on the
subject than in Act V, Scene 5 of the play:
QUICK. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!
About him, fairies ; sing a scornful rhyme :
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SONG. Fye on sinful fantasy!
Fye on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,
Fed in heart; whose flames aspire,
As thoughts do blow them higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;
Pinch him for his villainy;
Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
Till candles, and star-light, and moonshine be out.''
Fletcher, 111, I.
9OThere is some small evidence that the fairies were considered
patrons of true love. Cf. M. N. D., 111, 2; Greene, James the
Fourth, 111, 3; Thomas Campion, A Book of Ayres, XIX; and The
Queenes Majesties Entertainment at Woodstocke, pp. 110-112 ff.