THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

THE FAIRIES OF SHAKESPEARE 199
Dream occurs in Edward Fairfax's translatiyn of Tasso's
Godfrey of Bulloigne: or The Recovery of Jerusalem, of
the same year. Here, the fairies are given the position
of lesser devils under the express domination of Satan yet
with diminutive figures and flowery proclivities :
Before his Words the Tyrant ended had,
The lesser Devils arose with gastly rore,
And thronged forth about the World to gad,
Each Land they filled, River, Stream and Shore,
The Goblins, Fairies, Fiends and Furies mad,
Ranged in flowry Dales, and Mountains hore,
And under every trembling Leaf they sit,
Between the solid Earth and Welkin flit.
About the world they spread forth far and wide,
Filling the thoughts of each ungodly Heart,
With secret Mischief, Anger, Hate and Pride,
Wounding lost Souls with Sins impoison'd Dart.
123
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The incongruity of fairies sweeping from hell with
ghastly roar, ranged in flowery dales, and sitting, with the
most infinitesimal figures, under every trembling leaf,
does not seem to occur to the translator.
At the same time, approximately, the queen of fairies,
influenced by her association with the diminutive fairies
of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and by her identifica-
tion with Mab in Romeo and Juliet, is made ridiculously
decorative and innocuous, and appears in The Faery
Pastorall, or Forrest of Elves of William Percy as
" Chloris stickt with Floweres all her body."
The literary exploitation of the diminutive and florally
inclined fairies did not become the fashion until the end
of the first quarter of the century. This may have been
lZ3 Fourth Book, Stanzas 18 and 19, p. 97.
124 111, 5. Dated 1603. Dated by Chambers 15go?, revised 1599.