The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-01-24
SHAKESPEARE.s FAIRIES.
The Fairy School Had but One Chief. RI
Bard of uon

Ihe Fairy School Had but One Chief the
Bard of Avon.
There is one part of the ssMerry Wives"
which especially seems to favor the be-
lief that the piece was originally court
diversion The scene with the false
fairies has the sportive character, and
the touch OF ballet, which such courtly
past1me preferred. 1t is curious to COM
pare the false fairies of the ssMerry
Wives with the true FAIRIES of the Mid
summer-Night's Dream" that most fairy
piece OF writing in the world. Probably
the serious and poetic sprites ana the
earlier
The quarto of the Dream is dated
looo, but the comedy Is mentioned two
years before in the Palladis Tamia
Sl59S). So, to Shakespeare's fancy, his
welsh fairy, and the rest of his mas
querading citizens, NAV have been an
English rendering, almost an intention
al travesty, OF those Athenian fays,
more sweet of voice than the Mercedes,
VINO departed, the wedding over,
Following darkness like dream"
The Windsor sprites began nv BEING
proSalc enough, and the very slang of
Inc stage comes in when they cry:
Go, getus nroperties,
And trucking for our fairies;'
or,
= wherein fat Falstaf
Hath great scene"
But when once the fairy queen of
these mimic imps appears, the poet can
not help himself, but must make her
poetlcal, nay, must show his old sympa-
thles with the fantastic folk and knowl-
edge of their world.
" Fairies, black. gray, green and white,
You moonshlne jewelers. and shades of night
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your Office and your quality
Cr1er Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes"
Orphan-heirs of fixed destiny, these
are indeed the fairies, the shadows of
the ancient dead, of the old classic gods,
unredeemed, who dwell in their own al
lotted half-world of reflected light and
double shadow, the court of Queen Pros
erpina.
pinch them, arms, legs, backs, Shout
ders, sides and shins." This is their lit
tie part in the moral government of
things, the everyday or every-night
duty, so peasant belief held of
We fairies that do run
BY the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream"
The dread Hecate became in the mid
die ages the sovereign of mere moonlit
mischief.
But the pure poetry of old loyalty re-
asserts itself in this courtly command:
p" Search Windsor Castle elves, within and out;
Strew good luck, Ouphes, on every sacred
room;
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome, as in state tits fit,
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
And Hon sot qui NIL q pense, write
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and
white"
Then the poetry vanishes with the
fays, who brought it, as only to Shake
speare they could bring it, for he, too,
like COrneille, had his Mtin, his brownie,
who never deserted him when he sang
of the border of the two worlds, and the
realms between night and light, between
ghosts and men.
The Ettrick Shepherd, in burst of
confidence, once assured Sir Walter
Scott, GAVIN the chief of far higher
sshule than yours, the Mountain and
Fairy schulz"
But the good Shepherd overestimated
himself The Fairy school hath but
one chief Shakespeare-and Herrick
is his ancient.-Andrew Lang, in Har-
per's Magazine.