THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS 85
Of all the colors and complexions affected by the
fairies, black seems to have been the most prominent.
The Queen of the Fayry, who appeared to Elizabeth at
Woodstock, expressly states that her original complexion
was black :
This loue hath caused me transforme my face,
and in your hue to come before your eyne,
now white, then blacke, your frende the fayery Q~eene.~~
As may have been noticed also, it was the black fairy who
was always numbered among the fairy company and al-
ways mentioned by color whenever the fairies were
exorcised or summoned. This may have been due beih
to the fact that these fairies, the " swart faery of the
mine " 79 of Milton, were distinguished from the rest of
the fairies, being
. . . ye dancing spiritts of the Pittes: such as look to Toms
Aegiptians here, & helpe them hole & drive sharp theire Picks &
their moindrils, keepe away the dampe & keepe in theire Candles,
draine the Sough & hold them out of ye hollows;
and that they were, as John Walsh stated, " the
woorst."
Perhaps one of the best authorities for the colors of
the fairies' complexions is Merry Wives of Windsor.
Here, after great verbal and material pains have been
taken to dress the fairies in white and green costumes,
they are summoned by the fairy crier:
Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night.82
78 The Queenes Majesties Entertainment at Woodstocke, p. 98.
T9 Comus, 1. 436.
so Cole-Orton, p. 330.
fl Exam. of John Walsh, p. 240.
82 v, 5.
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