THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ORIGIN AND NATURE 27
Certainly, the fairies represented in The Anatomy of
Melancholy as " our Fairies" were not the fays of ro-
mance. These were mysterious ladies, " primarily en-
chantresses," and " often regarded as mortal " l5 with
$6 no limitations of beauty, age or resources." l6 They
dwelt in some inaccessible country concealed from human
eyes by glamour, or in some mysterious islands of the
ocean, or in the far-off island paradise of Avalon, usually
unapproachable save through their guidance or that of
one of their messengers.17 They came into the world of
mortals to gain a knight's love. In seeking this love,
. . . the fde . . . is . . . a queenly princess. She does not humbly
accept a marriage forced upon her, but comes from a distant land
solely to carry back the hero whom she loves, - not in the future
to be a wife patiently enduring all sorts of indignities, but a proud
supernatural mistress whose commands when not followed to the
letter bring sorrow to him whose life even is in her hands.ls
They concerned themselves with pleasure and the joys of
love, and used their power to shift their shapes, to build
enchanted dwellings, to fashion magic objects, to take
dire revenge on mortals who offended them,lQ and to in-
sure for their mortal lovers, youth and never-ending bliss
the dancing of the fairies, their bewitchment of mortals and the fact
that they are " conversant with men," all of which traits are common
to all fairies.
l6 E. K. Chambers, " The Fairy World," Appendix A of Warwick
edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1893 ed., p. 151.
l6 W. H. Schofield, The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, rpt. from
Mod. Lang. Assn. Publns., Vol. XV, No. 2, Baltimore, 1900.
l7 See H. C. Coote, " Neo-Latin Fay," The Folk-Lore Record, Vol.
11, 1879, p. 5; Alfred Nutt, " The Fairy Mythology of English Litera-
ture, dlk- ore, Vol. 8, 1897, p. 37.
Is W. H. Schofield, " The Lay of Guingamor," Harvard Studies and
Notes in Philology and Literature, Vol. 5, 1896, p. 236.
Is L. A. Paton, Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Ro-
mance, 1903, p. 147.