ON FAIRIES.
27
Danced ful oft in many a grene mede.[1]This was the old opinion as I rede;I speke of many hundred yeres ago;But now can no man see non elves mo,For now the grete charitee and prayeresOf limitoures and other holy freres,That serchen every land, and every streme,As thikke as motes in the sunnebeme,Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures,Citees and burghes, castles highe and toures,Thropes and bernes, shepenes and dairies,This maketh that ther ben no faeries."
The fairy may be defined as a species of being partly material, partly spiritual; with a power to change its appearance, and be, to mankind, visible or invisible, according to its pleasure. In the old song printed by Peck, Robin Good-fellow, a well-known fairy, professes that he had played his pranks from the time of Merlin, who was the contemporary of Arthur.
Chaucer uses the word faërie as well for the individual, as for the country or system, or what we should now call fairy-land, or fairyism. He knew nothing, it would seem of Oberon, Titania, or Mab, but speaks of
"Pluto, that is the king of Faerie,And many a ladie in his compagnie,Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina, &c."
- ↑ Wif of Bathes tale.
