THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

72 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
Holinshed's Chronicle of Scotland, The History and
Chronicles of Scotland by Hector Boece, translated by
John Bellenden, from which this account is taken, the
term, " three women," is the only designation given the
three beings who appeared. The explanation of these
women as fairies was added by Holinshed. Had the
diminutiveness or perceptible smallness of the fairies
been as pronounced a characteristic of the race in 1577
as today, it would have been almost impossible to have
confused them with goddesses whose figures were never
represented as undersize.
The statement of Burton that the water devils or water
nymphs were called fairies, is followed by the explanation
that such a one was " Egeria, with whom Numa was so
familiar, Diana, Ceres, &c." 24 William Browne in
Britannia's Pastorals notes the fairies' likeness to a hu-
man maiden, or to one of the nine Muses, or to Venus
or Proserpina :
Maiden, arise, repli'd the new-borne Maid :
" Pure Innocence the senslesse stones will aide.
Nor of the Fairie troope, nor Muses nine;
Nor am I Venus, nor of Proserpine:
But daughter to a lusty aged Swaine." 25
The following quotation from Euphues seems most
indicative not only of the beauty of the fairies, but also
of their size and figure:
As the Ladies in this blessed Islande are deuout and braue, so
are they chast and beautifull, insomuch that when I first behelde
them, I could not tell whether some mist had bleared myne eyes,
or some strang enchauntment altered my mynde, for it may bee,
thought I, that in this IsUd, either some Artemidorus or Lisi-
24Anat. of Mel., p. 219.
25 Vol. I, Song 4, Book I, p. 110. Cf. also Scot, Dis. of Witch.,
1651 ed., p. 52.