FAIRIES IN LITERATURE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 9

FAIRIES IN LITERATURE

The "Manchester Guardian" has a pleasant article in discussion of Mme. Faure-Goyau's latest book, "La Vie et la' Mort des Fees," in the course of which she touches on the'fairy element in-Shakespeare;- Spenser, Keats,: Shelley (which she describes as "uu poete fee") and .Tennyson. , . . .." ,

i ,'i'hft complaint, 'which ..an..; English reader'.is most likely to make ■ is; that she hardly does justi'ce.to the character of Edmund Spenser. She may be right ■in-.objecting .to"the. intrusion of a po 7 lemical element into a fairy-tale, but she is wrong in thinking that in that poem, Spenser deliberately set himself 'to.-extol Elizabeth and vilify her enemies... Elizabeth, indeed, never had a handsomer compliment i paid her than in being., as Gloriana, made the central figure ot the "Faery Queen," but Spenser's ' admiration was . quite sincere.. Everyone shared it. Even those whose knowledge of tho history of the.poi-iod extends no further than to a certain meritorious, (work by the , late .John Richard Green, know that towards the close of her reign the English people were infatuated with their Queen. The truth 'is—as recent events may help us .to.understand—there, eorae times in our nation's history when a wave of patriotic feeling sweeps over the country and the monarchic sentiment asserts itself with a vigour that surprises people themselves. Such events happen .when that' predisposition to believe well of their rulers which is. a characteristic English feeling is more than.'; gratified by the achievements of the, monarch. And, Elizabeth had brought her.oo.untry to. sueh. a pitch of greatness that she became almost ' a cult. Not Spenser only, but all tho writers from Shake.speare to Puttenham, praised her in language that seems to us hyperbolic. Moreover, Spenser's was by no means the' self-interested adulation of a Court poet. In his earliest work .he had! takerr tho daring step of criticising the Queen's conduct. Grindal had fallen under ■ her' displeasure; Spenser eulogised him.. Aylmer has succeeded him; Spenser taxed him with ambition. "It is. good," said Henry Morlcy, "to sco how the' young' Spenser begins lifo as a poet v with Conscience turning Pettyprudence out of dobrs." And it was in a .spirit of .mingled .loyalty and patriotism that the mature Spensei paid his superb compliment to Que«n Elizabeth, and if he Vilified her enemies,it was.because they were his enemies' al.so. ' , It did not fall-within the scope of Mme. Faure-Goyau's undertaking to exhaust the ' treatment of , fairy subjects in the various literatures into which she makes expeditions, but a pretty task will lie to tho hand of some writer who will weave into, an explanatory and critical narrative, an anthology of tho chiof filhmiona to fairies in English poetry. He, will, for one thing, have to lay his count with the fact that the 'Wife' of Bath and Bishop Corbet aro at issue as to the cause of their disapnearance. The Wife of Bath ascribes it "to tho assiduities of the begging friars, eacli in bis district. They go about everywhere, blessing hall and bower, tower and castle, barn ami dairy, so that there ia no longer aT. unhallowed nook or corner where a fairy may find harbour. Corbet says it was tho Rc--formation that drove them away In Mary Tudor's day they were still footing 'it merrily enough in. their rings up°on the greensward, But' since of late Elizabeth \nd later James came in, They never dance on any heath As when the time hath bin. Bv which we note the fairies 'Were'of tho old profession, Their songs were Ave Mopes, Their dances were procession. J-I a will further have to take note of the delightful seaside fairies of Milton. Milton may have taken his hint from tho-song of Ariel in "The Tempest, nut in any case it lias issued in lour ni the. loveliest picture lines in the whole body of English poetry: The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, ■ . Now. lo the moon in wavering morncc move; ' And on the lawny sands and shelves Trip tho ucrt fairies and tho dapper elves.

Finally, ho. will, have to discuss to what extent the fairies come to share tho national character of the various peoples among whom they are found. It is 31 r. Yoats's contention that while tho Irishman has made his sidhc and leprechauns good-natured and benevolent; the Scotsman lias scoured his fairies and made them ohjects of dread. He may bo right or he may bo wrong, but anyono who turns in tho -"Celtic Twilight" to the "Remonstrance with Scotsmen" will decide for himself whether the thesis is proved or was only adopted by Mr.. Yeats as a thread on which to string' some capital stories.