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ON FAIRIES.
"What sounds are these that gather from the shores,The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bow'rs,The fair-hair'd dryads of the shady wood,Or azure daughters of the silver flood!"Odys. B. 6, V. 122.
The original word, indeed, is nymphs, which, it must be confessed, furnishes an accurate idea of the fays (fees or fates) of the ancient French and Italian romances; wherein they are represented as females of inexpressible beauty, elegance, and every kind of personal accomplishment, united with magic, or supernatural power. Such, for instance, as the Calypso of Homer, or the Alcina of Ariosto. 'Agreeably' to this idea it is that Shakspeare makes Antony say, in allusion to Cleopatra,
"To this Great Fairy I'll commend thy acts,"
meaning this grand assemblage of power and beauty. Such, also, is the character of the ancient nymphs, spoken of by the Roman poets: as Virgil, for instance:
They, likewise, occur in other passages, as well as in Horace:
- ↑ Geor. L. 2, V. 493.
