In oldè dayès of the king Artoúr, Of which that Bretons speken gret honoúr, All was this lond fulfilled of faërie;[384] The Elf-quene with her joly compagnie, Danced ful oft in many a grenè mede. This was the old opinion as I rede; I speke of many hundred yeres ago. But now can no man see non elvès mo, For now the gretè charitee and prayéres Of limitoures, and other holy freres, That serchen every land and every streme, As thikke as motès in the sonnè-beme, Blissing halles, chambres, kichenès, and boures, Citees and burghès, castles highe, and toures, Thropès[385] and bernès, shepenes and dairiés, This maketh that there ben no faëries; For there as wont to walken was an elf, There walketh now the limitour himself, In undermelès,[386] and in morweninges, And sayth his matines and his holy thinges, As he goth in his limitatioun. Women may now go safely up and down; In every bush and under every tree There is none other incubus but he, And he ne will don hem no dishonoúr. The Fairies therefore form a part of the tale, and they are thus introduced: The day was come that homward must he turne; And in his way it happed him to ride, In all his care, under a forest side, Wheras he saw upon a dancè go Of ladies foure and twenty, and yet mo: Toward this ilke dance he drow ful yerne, In hope that he som wisdom shuldè lerne; But certainly, er he came fully there, Yvanished was this dance, he n'iste not wher; No creäture saw he that barè lif, Save on the grene he saw sitting a wif, A fouler wight ther may no man devise. These ladies bear a great resemblance to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia. We need hardly inform our readers that this "foul wight" becomes the knight's deliverer from the imminent danger he is in, and that, when he has been forced to marry her, she is changed into a beautiful young maiden. But who or what she was the poet sayeth not. In the Marchantes Tale we meet the Faerie attendant on Pluto and Proserpina, their king and queen, a sort of blending of classic and Gothic mythology: for to tell The beautee of the gardin, and the well That stood under a laurer alway grene; Ful often time he Pluto, and his quene Proserpina, and alle hir faërie[387] Disporten hem, and maken melodie About that well, and daunced, as men told. Again, in the same Tale: