Читать книгу Folk-lore of Shakespeare - T. F. Thiselton-Dyer - Страница 6

“Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;

Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,

With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;

The honey bags steal from the humble-bees,

And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs

And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,

To have my love to bed, and to arise;

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies

To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”

We may compare, too, Ariel’s well-known song in “The Tempest” (v. 1):

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip’s bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry,

On the bat’s back I do fly

After summer merrily,

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.”

Again, from the following passage in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (iv. 4) where Mrs. Page, after conferring with her husband, suggests that—

“Nan Page my daughter, and my little son,

And three or four more of their growth, we’ll dress

Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,

With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,

And rattles in their hands”

it is evident that in Shakespeare’s day fairies were supposed to be of the size of children. The notion of their diminutiveness, too, it appears was not confined to this country,[25] but existed in Denmark,[26] for in the ballad of “Eline of Villenskov” we read:

“Out then spake the smallest Trold;

No bigger than an ant;—

Oh! here is come a Christian man,

His schemes I’ll sure prevent.”

Again, various stories are current in Germany descriptive of the fairy dwarfs; one of the most noted being that relating to Elberich, who aided the Emperor Otnit to gain the daughter of the Paynim Soldan of Syria.[27]

The haunt of the fairies on earth are generally supposed to be the most romantic and rural that can be selected; such a spot being the place of Titania’s repose described by Oberon in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 1):[28]

“a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania some time of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.”

Titania also tells how the fairy race meet

“on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,

By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,

Or in the beached margent of the sea.”

In “The Tempest” (v. 1), we have the following beautiful invocation by Prospero:

“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;

And ye, that on the sands with printless foot

Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him

When he comes back—”

Their haunts, however, varied in different localities, but their favorite abode was in the interior of conical green hills, on the slopes of which they danced by moonlight. Milton, in the “Paradise Lost” (book i.), speaks of

“fairy elves,

Whose midnight revels, by a forest side

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth

Wheels her pale course, they, on their mirth and dance

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.”

The Irish fairies occasionally inhabited the ancient burial-places known as tumuli or barrows, while some of the Scottish fairies took up their abode under the “door-stane” or threshold of some particular house, to the inmates of which they administered good offices.[29]

The so-called fairy-rings in old pastures[30]—little circles of a brighter green, within which it was supposed the fairies dance by night—are now known to result from the out-spreading propagation of a particular mushroom, the fairy-ringed fungus, by which the ground is manured for a richer following vegetation. An immense deal of legendary lore, however, has clustered round this curious phenomenon, popular superstition attributing it to the merry roundelays of the moonlight fairies.[31] In “The Tempest” (v. 1) Prospero invokes the fairies as the “demy-puppets” that

“By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,

Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime

Is to make midnight-mushrooms.”

In “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 1), the fairy says:

“I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon’s sphere;

And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green.”

Again, in the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (v. 5), Anne Page says:

“And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing

Like to the Garter’s compass, in a ring;

The expressure that it bears, green let it be,

More fertile-fresh than all the field to see.”

And once in “Macbeth” (v. 1), Hecate says:

“Like elves and fairies in a ring.”

Drayton, in his “Nymphidia” (l. 69-72), mentions this superstition:

“And in their courses make that round,

In meadows and in marshes found,

Of them so called the fayrie ground,

Of which they have the keeping.”

Cowley, too, in his “Complaint,” says:

“Where once such fairies dance, no grass does ever grow.”

And again, in his ode upon Dr. Harvey:

“And dance, like fairies, a fantastic round.”

Pluquet, in his “Contes Populaires de Bayeux,” tells us that the fairy rings, called by the peasants of Normandy “Cercles des fées,” are said to be the work of fairies.

Among the numerous superstitions which have clustered round the fairy rings, we are told that when damsels of old gathered the May dew on the grass, which they made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings, apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty. Nor was it considered safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to the fairies’ power.[32] The “Athenian Oracle” (i. 397) mentions a popular belief that “if a house be built upon the ground where fairy rings are, whoever shall inhabit therein does wonderfully prosper.”

Speaking of their dress, we are told that they constantly wore green vests, unless they had some reason for changing their attire. In the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iv. 4) they are spoken of as—

“Urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white.”

And further on (v. 4):

“Fairies, black, grey, green, and white.”

The fairies of the moors were often clad in heath-brown or lichen-dyed garments, whence the epithet of “Elfin-grey.”[33]

The legends of most countries are unanimous in ascribing to the fairies an inordinate love of music; such harmonious sounds as those which Caliban depicts in “The Tempest” (iii. 2) being generally ascribed to them:

“The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again.”

In the “Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 3), when Titania is desirous of taking a nap, she says to her attendants:

“Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song.”

And further on (iii. 1) she tells Bottom:

“I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep.”

The author of “Round About our Coal Fire”[34] tells us that “they had fine musick always among themselves, and danced in a moonshiny night, around, or in, a ring.”

They were equally fond of dancing, and we are told how they meet—

“To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind;”

and in the “Maydes’ Metamorphosis” of Lyly, the fairies, as they dance, sing:

“Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,

Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a,

Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,

All about, in and out, for our brave queen a,” etc.

As Mr. Thoms says, in his “Three Notelets on Shakespeare” (1865, pp. 40, 41), “the writings of Shakespeare abound in graphic notices of these fairy revels, couched in the highest strains of poetry; and a comparison of these with some of the popular legends which the industry of Continental antiquaries has preserved will show us clearly that these delightful sketches of elfin enjoyment have been drawn by a hand as faithful as it is masterly.”

It would seem that the fairies disliked irreligious people: and so, in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (v. 5), the mock fairies are said to chastise unchaste persons, and those who do not say their prayers. This coincides with what Lilly, in his “Life and Times,” says: “Fairies love a strict diet and upright life; fervent prayers unto God conduce much to the assistance of those who are curious hereways,” i. e., who wish to cultivate an acquaintance with them.

Again, fairies are generally represented as great lovers and patrons of cleanliness and propriety, for the observance of which they were frequently said to reward good servants, by dropping money into their shoes in the night; and, on the other hand, they were reported to punish most severely the sluts and slovenly, by pinching them black and blue.[35] Thus, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (v. 1), Puck says:

“I am sent, with broom, before,

To sweep the dust behind the door.”

In “Merry Wives of Windsor” (v. 5), Pistol, speaking of the mock fairy queen, says:

“Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery;”

and the fairies who haunt the towers of Windsor are enjoined:

“About, about,

Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out:

Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room:

*****

The several chairs of order look you scour

With juice of balm and every precious flower.”

In Ben Jonson’s ballad of “Robin Goodfellow”[36] we have a further illustration of this notion:

“When house or hearth cloth sluttish lie,

I pinch the maidens black and blue,

The bed clothes from the bed pull I,

And lay them naked all to view.

’Twixt sleep and wake

I do them take,

And on the key-cold floor them throw;

If out they cry,

Then forth I fly,

And loudly laugh I, ho, ho, ho!”

In “Round About our Coal Fire,” we find the following passage bearing on the subject: “When the master and mistress were laid on the pillows, the men and maids, if they had a game at romps, and blundered up stairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every one would swear ’twas the fairies, and that they heard them stamping up and down stairs all night, crying, ‘Waters lock’d, waters lock’d!’ when there was no water in every pail in the kitchen.” Herrick, too, in his “Hesperides,” speaks of this superstition:

“If ye will with Mab find grace,

Set each platter in his place;

Rake the fire up, and set

Water in, ere sun be set,

Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies,

Sluts are loathesome to the fairies: Sweep your house; who doth not so, Mab will pinch her by the toe.”

While the belief in the power of fairies existed, they were supposed to perform much good service to mankind. Thus, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (v. 1), Oberon says:

“With this field-dew consecrate,

Every fairy take his gait;

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace;

And the owner of it blest,

Ever shall in safety rest”—

the object of their blessing being to bring peace upon the house of Theseus. Mr. Douce[37] remarks that the great influence which the belief in fairies had on the popular mind “gave so much offence to the holy monks and friars, that they determined to exert all their power to expel these imaginary beings from the minds of the people, by taking the office of the fairies’ benedictions entirely into their own hands;” a proof of which we have in Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath:”

“I speke of many hundred yeres ago;

But now can no man see non elves mo,

For now the grete charitee and prayeres

Of limitoures and other holy freres

That serchen every land and every streme,

As thikke as motes in the sonne beme,

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:

For ther as wont to walken was an elf

Ther walketh now the limitour himself.”

Macbeth, too (v. 8), in his encounter with Macduff, says:

“I bear a charmed life, which must not yield

To one of woman born.”

In the days of chivalry, the champion’s arms were ceremoniously blessed, each taking an oath that he used no charmed weapon. In Spenser’s “Fairy Queen” (book i. canto 4) we read:

“he bears a charmed shield,

And eke enchanted arms, that none can pierce.”

Fairies were amazingly expeditious in their journeys. Thus, Puck goes “swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow,” and in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” he answers Oberon, who was about to send him on a secret expedition:

“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth

In forty minutes.”

Again, the same fairy addresses him:

“Fairy king, attend, and mark:

I do hear the morning lark.

Oberon. Then, my queen, in silence sad, Trip we after the night’s shade: We the globe can compass soon, Swifter than the wand’ring moon.”

Once more, Puck says:

“My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,

For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,

And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,” etc.

It was fatal, if we may believe Falstaff in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (v. 5) to speak to a fairy: “They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die.”

Fairies are accustomed to enrich their favorites; and in “A Winter’s Tale” (iii. 3) the shepherd says: “It was told me I should be rich by the fairies;”[38] and in “Cymbeline” (v. 4), Posthumus, on waking and finding the mysterious paper, exclaims:

“What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!

Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment

Nobler than that it covers,” etc.

At the same time, however, it was unlucky to reveal their acts of generosity, as the shepherd further tells us: “This is fairy gold, boy; and ’twill prove so; up with’t, keep it close, home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy.”

The necessity of secrecy in fairy transactions of this kind is illustrated in Massinger and Field’s play of “The Fatal Dowry,” 1632 (iv. 1),[39] where Romont says:

“But not a word o’ it; ’tis fairies’ treasure,

Which, but reveal’d, brings on the blabber’s ruin.”

Among the many other good qualities belonging to the fairy tribe, we are told that they were humanely attentive to the youthful dead.[40] Thus Guiderius, in “Cymbeline,” thinking that Imogen is dead (iv. 2), says:

“With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,

And worms will not come to thee;”[41]

there having been a popular notion that where fairies resorted no noxious creature could be found.

In the pathetic dirge of Collins a similar allusion is made:

“No wither’d witch shall here be seen,

No goblin lead their nightly crew;

The female fays shall haunt the green,

And dress thy grave with pearly dew.”

It seems, however, that they were also supposed to be malignant; but this, “it may be,” says Mr. Ritson, “was merely calumny, as being utterly inconsistent with their general character, which was singularly innocent and amiable.” Thus, when Imogen, in “Cymbeline” (ii. 2), prays on going to sleep,

“From fairies and the tempters of the night,

Guard me, beseech ye,”[42]

it must have been, says Mr. Ritson,[43] the incubus she was so afraid of.

Hamlet, too, notices this imputed malignity of the fairies (i. 1):

“Then no planet strikes,

Nor fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm.”[44]

That the fairies, however, were fond of indulging in mischievous sport at the expense of mortals is beyond all doubt, the merry pranks of Puck or Robin Goodfellow fully illustrating this item of our fairy-lore. Thus, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 1) this playful fairy says:

“I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile,

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,

In very likeness of a roasted crab;

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,

And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And ‘tailor’ cries, and falls into a cough.”

A fairy, in another passage, asks Robin:

“Are you not he

That frights the maidens of the villagery,

*****

Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?”

We have already mentioned how Queen Mab had the same mischievous humor in her composition, which is described by Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 4):

“This is that very Mab

That plats the manes of horses in the night,

And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.”

Another reprehensible practice attributed to the fairies was that of carrying off and exchanging children, such being designated changelings.[45] The special agent in transactions of the sort was also Queen Mab, and hence Mercutio says:

“She is the fairies’ midwife.”

And “she is so called,” says Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, “because it was her supposed custom to steal new-born babes in the night and leave others in their place.” Mr. Steevens gives a different interpretation to this line, and says, “It does not mean that she was the midwife to the fairies, but that she was the person among the fairies whose department it was to deliver the fancies of sleeping men in their dreams, those children of an idle brain.”