THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

THE FAIRIES OF SHAKESPEARE 191
and the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester represented
them as possessing the figures of men and women:
And me may hem ofte on erpe in wylde studes y se,
And ofte in monne's fourme wymmen heo cornep to,
And ofte in wymmen forme pei comep to men a1 so,
pat men clepup eluene, . . . 97
Neither in Layamon's Brut is there evidence of any
diminution in the stature of the elves or of Argante, their
queen, who is represented as a woman.''
v01. I, p. 130.
Madden ed., London, 1847 :
MS. Cott. Calig., A. IX, 11. 19252-19269, Vol. 11;
MS. Cott. Otho, c. XIII, 11. 21x29-21140, Vol. 11;
MS. Cott. Calig., A. IX, 11. 21739-21748, Vol. I1 ;
MS. Cott. Calig., A. IX, 11. 28610-28627, Vol. 111.
g9 " It is needless to say that we have no trace of any fairies ap-
proaching the minute dimensions of Shakespeare's Queen Mab; for,
after all, our fairies are mostly represented as not extravagantly un-
like other people in personal appearance -not so unlike, in fact, that
other folk might not be mistaken for them now and then as late as the
latter part of the fifteenth century. Witness the following passage
from Sir John Wynne's History of the Gwydir Family, p. 74:
' Haveing purchased this lease, he removed his dwelling to the
castle of Dolwydelan, which at that time was in part thereof
habitable, where one Howell ap Jevan ap Rys Gethin, in the be-
ginning of Edward the Fourth his raigne, captaine of the coun-
trey and an outlaw, had dwelt. Against this man David ap
Jenkin rose, and contended with him for the sovereignety of the
countrey; and being superiour to him, in the end he drew a
draught for him, and took him in his bed at Penanmen with his
concubine, performing by craft, what he could not by force, and
brought him to Conway Castle. Thus, after many bickerings
between Howell and David ap Jenkin, he being too weake, was
faigne to flie the countrey, and to goe to Ireland, where he was a
yeare or thereabouts. In the end he returned in the summer
time, haveing himselfe, and all his followers clad in greene, who,
being come into the countrey, he dispersed here and there among