The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
He (Arthur) is a king y-crowned in _Faërie_,
With sceptre and pall, and with his regalty
Shallè resort, as lord and sovereigne,
Out of _Faerie_, and reignè in Bretaine,
And repair again the ouldè Roundè Table.
_Lydgate, Fall of Princes_, bk. viii. c. 24.
3. From the country the appellation passed to the inhabitants in their
collective capacity, and the Faerie now signified the people of
Fairy-land.[17]
Of the fourth kind of Spritis called the Phairie.
_K. James, Demonologie_, 1. 3.
Full often time he, Pluto, and his quene
Proserpina, and alle hir _faërie_,
Disporten hem, and maken melodie
About that well.--_Marchante's Tale._
The feasts that underground the _Faërie_ did him make,
And there how he enjoyed the Lady of the Lake.
_Drayton, Poly-Olb., Song IV._
4. Lastly, the word came to signify the individual denizen of
Fairy-land, and was equally applied to the full-sized fairy knights
and ladies of romance, and to the pygmy elves that haunt the woods and
dells. At what precise period it got this its last, and subsequently
most usual sense, we are unable to say positively; but it was probably
posterior to Chaucer, in whom it never occurs, and certainly anterior
to Spenser, to whom, however, it seems chiefly indebted for its future
general currency.[18] It was employed during the sixteenth century[19]
for the Fays of romance, and also, especially by translators, for the
Elves, as corresponding to the Latin Nympha.
They believed that king Arthur was not dead, but carried awaie by
the _Fairies_ into some pleasant place, where he should remaine
for a time, and then returne again and reign in as great authority
as ever.
_Hollingshed_, bk. v. c. 14. Printed 1577.
Semicaper Pan
Nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore nymphæ.
_Ovid, Met._ xiv. 520.
The halfe-goate Pan that howre
Possessed it, but heretofore it was the _Faries'_ bower.
_Golding_, 1567.
Hæc nemora indigenæ fauni nymphæque tenebant,
Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata.
_Virgil, Æneis_, viii. 314.
With nymphis and faunis apoun every side,
Qwhilk _Farefolkis_ or than _Elfis_ clepen we.
_Gawin Dowglas._
The woods (quoth he) sometime both fauns and nymphs, and gods of
ground,
And _Fairy-queens_ did keep, and under them a nation rough.
_Phaer_, 1562.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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