Prometheus did create A man of many parts from beasts deryved; That man so made he called Elfe, to weet, Quick,[87] the first author of all Elfin kynd, Who, wandring through the world with wearie feet, Did in the gardins of Adonis fynd A goodly creature, whom he deemed in mynd To be no earthly wight, but either spright Or angell, the authour of all woman-kynd; Therefore a Fay he her according hight, Of whom all Faryes spring, and fetch their lignage right. Of these a mighty people shortly grew, And puissant kings, which all the world warrayd, And to themselves all nations did subdue. B. ii. c. 9. st. lxx., lxxi., lxxii. Sir Walter Scott remarks with justice (though his memory played him somewhat false on the occasion), that "the stealing of the Red Cross Knight while a child, is the only incident in the poem which approaches to the popular character of the Fairy." It is not exactly the _only_ incident; but the only other, that of Arthegal, is a precisely parallel one:-- He wonneth in the land of Fayëree, Yet is no Fary born, ne sib at all To Elfes, but sprung of seed terrestriall, And whyleome by false Faries stolne away, Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall: Ne other to himself is knowne this day, But that he by an Elfe was gotten of a Fay. B. iii. c. 3. st. xxvi. Sir Walter has been duly animadverted on for this dangerous error by the erudite Mr. Todd. It would be as little becoming as politic in us, treading, as we do, on ground where error ever hovers around us, to make any remark. Freedom from misconception and mistake, unfortunately, forms no privilege of our nature. We must here observe, that Spenser was extremely injudicious in his selection of the circumstances by which he endeavoured to confound the two classes of Fairies. It was quite incongruous to style the progeny of the subjects of Gloriane a "base elfin brood," or themselves "false Fairies," especially when we recollect that such a being as Belphœbe whose whole creation did her show Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime, That is ingenerate in fleshly slime, was born of a Fairie. Our poet seems to have forgotten himself also in the Legend of Sir Calidore; for though the knight is a Faerie himself, and though such we are to suppose were all the native inhabitants of Faerie-land, yet to the "gentle flood" that tumbled down from Mount Acidale, ne mote the ruder clown Thereto approach ne filth mote therein drown; But Nymphs and Faeries on the banks did sit In the woods shade which did the waters crown. B. vi. c. 10. st. vii.