THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ORIGIN AND NATURE 25
The fact that the fairies of the 16th century were the
fairies of the folk and of native tradition was generally
recognized by scholars. One has only to turn to the
initial statements with which a discussion or definition
of the fairies is prefaced to discover that this is true.
Here, again and again, in essay or in treatise, they are
referred to as " our Fairies," or identified as figures of
popular belief in such phrases as " those little Puppet-
Spirits, which they call Elves or Fairies "; ? " They be
also those, whiche be called ladies of the fayry";'
" Some put our Fairies into this rank "; Apparition
of these kiqd of Creatures, which the common people
call Fayries "; lo " That fourth kinde of Spirits, . . .
amongst vs was called the Phairie . . . or our good
neighbours "; " " Robin good-fellowes some, some call
them Fairies." l2
The most notable example of the conception of the
fairies as English spirits and as traditional beings, by a
scholar of the period, is to be seen in Burton's A Digres-
sion on the Nature of Spirits, bad Angels, or Deviles,
among whom he included the fairies. After attempting
to classify them in the recognized categories of spirits,
especially in the sixth rank of sublunary devils, and after
and Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Cambridge ed., 1908, Book I,
Canto X, Stanza LXV; in which both tht traditional fairies and the
literary fairies are represented.
Henry More, An Antidote against Atheism, 4th ed., 1712, p. 121.
Bibliotheca Eliotae, L ante A, jd ed., Lond~n, 1559.
9 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Shilleto ed., 1896,
Vol. I, p. 219.
lo John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, 1676
ed., p. 41.
"James VI of Scotland, Daemonologie, 1616, p. 132.
l2 Thomas Heywood, The Hierarchie of the blessed Angells, 1635,
P. 574.