THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

178 THE FAIRIES OF SHAKESPEARE
is familiar with changelings, as is the shepherd in The
Winter's Tale.' In Cymbeline,' and in Macbeth,lo the
fairies appear in their traditional r6les of " tempters of
the night," and of familiar spirits of witches. King
Lear,ll Antony and Cleopatra l2 and The Winter's Tale
represent them as beautiful and generous to their fa-
vorites. Merry Wives of Windsor l4 and Comedy of
Errors l5 reveal their practice of pinching and their in-
sistence on chastity and cleanliness; the Tempest,16 their
passion for misleading unwary folk; and Yenus and
Adonis,17 their obsession for dancing. In Merry Wives
of Windsor,'' men, women and children take part in a
representation of their race. In Pericles,lg and in
Cymbeline,20 mortal women are mistaken for them.
And nowhere is the location of fairyland more definitely
represented than in the saw-pit of Merry Wives of
Wind~or.~~
Yet Shakespeare's recognition of the traditional fair-
ies of his time and his representation of the traditional
fairy world, complete and detailed as it was, were even-
tually ignored for his conception of the poetic and imag-
inary fairyland of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and
8 111, 3, 11. 120-122.
11, 2, 11. 11-12.
lo IV, I, 11. 44-48.
l1 IV, 6, 11. 29-30.
l2 IV, 8, 1. 59.
13 111, 3, 11. 25 and 59.
l4 V, 5, 11. 49-51 ; and V, 5, 11. 100-102.
-I5 11, 2, 11. 190-194.
l6 IV, I, 1. 186.
IT Stanza 25.
Is IV, 4.
l9 v, I, 11. 148-150.
20 111, 6.
"v, 3, 1. 14.