This wife which is of _faërie_, Of such a childe delivered is, Fro kindè which stante all amis. GOWER, _Legende of Constance_. [389] The derivation of Oberon has been already given (p. 208). The Shakspearean commentators have not thought fit to inform us why the poet designates the Fairy-queen, Titania. It, however, presents no difficulty. It was the belief of those days that the Fairies were the same as the classic Nymphs, the attendants of Diana: "That fourth kind of spritis," says King James, "quhilk be the gentilis was called Diana, and her wandering court, and amongst us called the _Phairie_." The Fairy-queen was therefore the same as Diana, whom Ovid (Met. iii. 173) styles Titania; Chaucer, as we have seen, calls her Proserpina. [390] 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads, Where the light Fairies danced upon the flowers, Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl. _Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll, 1600. Steevens._ Men of fashion, in that age, wore earrings. [391] And the yellow-skirted Fayes Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. MILTON, _Ode on the Nativity_, 235. [392] _Ouph_, Steevens complacently tells us, in the Teutonic language, is a fairy; if by Teutonic he means the German, and we know of no other, he merely showed his ignorance. Ouph is the same as _oaf_ (formerly spelt _aulf_), and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed from _elf_ by the usual change of _l_ into _u_. [393] _i. e._ Pinch severely. The Ang.-Sax. [Old English: to] joined to a verb or part. answers to the German _zu_ or _zer_. [Old English: to-brecan] is to break to pieces, [Old English: to-drifan] to drive asunder, scatter. Verbs of this kind occur in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, in Chaucer and elsewhere. The part. is often preceded by _all_, in the sense of the German _ganz_, quite, with which some ignorantly join the _to_ as _all-to ruffled_ in Comus, 380, instead of _all to-ruffled_. In Golding's Ovid (p. 15) we meet "With rugged head as white as down, and garments _all to-torn_;" in Judges ix. 53, "and _all to-brake_ his skull." See also Faerie Queene, iv. 7, 8; v. 8, 4, 43, 44; 9, 10. [394] After all the commentators have written, this line is still nearly unintelligible to us. It may relate to the supposed origin of the fairies. For _orphan_, Warburton conjectured _ouphen_, from _ouph_. [395] The Anglo-Saxon [Old English: Midan eard] or [Old English: geard]; and is it not also plainly the Midgard of the Edda?