And you whose pastimeIs to make midnight mushrooms.—Tempest, v. 1.[371]Jack-o'-the-lanthorn, Will-o'-the-wisp. In Worcestershire they call it Hob-and-his-lanthorn, and Hobany's- or Hobredy's-lanthorn. Allies,ut sup.[372]Knight of the Burning Pestle: see above, p.309.[373]Ardis the Germanhart, and is, like it, depreciatory. It is not an Anglo-Saxon termination, but from the Anglo-Saxonold english doll,dull, we havedullard. May nothaggardbehawk-ard, and the Frenchhagardbe derived from it, and not the reverse?[374]For in Anglo-Saxonáttorcoppe(Poison-head?) is spider, and fromáttorcoppe-web, by the usual aphœresis of the two first syllables we putcoppe-web, cobweb. May not the same have been the case withlob? and may not the nastybugbe in a similar manner connected with Puck? Asdvergsnatis in Swedish a cobweb, one might be tempted to suppose that this last, for which no good etymon has been offered, waslob-web; but the true etymon iscop-web, from its usual site.Upon thecopright of his nose he heddeA wert.—Chaucer,Cant. Tales,v.556.[375]Deut. Mythol. p. 492.[376]SeeFrance.Inis a mere termination, perhaps, likeon, a diminutive, as inCatinKate,RobinBob.Lutinwas also speltLuyton: see p.42.[377]The two lines which followFro the nightes mare the witè Paternoster!Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster?are rather perplexing. We would explain them thus. Bergerac, as quoted by Brand (Pop. Antiq. i. 312. Bohn's edit.) makes a magician say "I teach the shepherds the wolf's paternoster,"i. e.one that keeps off the wolf.Witemay then bei. q. wight, andwight paternosterbe a safeguard against the wights, and we would read the verse thus: "Fro the nightes mare the wite paternoster"sc. blisse itorus. St. Peter'ssuster,i. e.wife (see I Cor. ix. 5) may have been canonised in the popular creed, and held to be potent against evil beings. The termsusterwas used probably to obviate the scandal of supposing the first Pope to have been a married man. This charm is given at greater length and with some variations by Cartwright in his Ordinary, Act iii. sc. 1.[378]He derives it from the Frenchoursin, but the Ang.-Sax. name of the hedgehog iseold english rold english scen.[379]Athenæum, Oct. 9, 1847.[380]Hist. of England, i. 478, 8vo edit.[381]Deut. Mythol. p. 419.[382]Layamon's Brut, etc., by Sir Frederick Madden.[383]Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. viii. We do not wonder that this should have eluded previous observation, but it is really surprising that we should have been the first to observe the resemblance between Ariosto's tale of Giocondo and the introductory tale of the Thousand and One Nights. It is also strange that no one should have noticed the similarity between Ossian's Carthon and the tale of Soohrâb in the Shâh-nâmeh.[384]Both here and lower down we would takefaëriein its first sense.[385]Thrope,thorpe, ordorp, is a village, the Germandorf; Dutchdorp; we may still find it in the names of places, as Althorpe.Dorpoccurs frequently in Drayton's Polyolbion; it is also used by Dryden, Hind and Panther,v.1905.[386]Undermelesi. e.undertide(p 51), aftermeal, afternoon.[387]This is the third sense ofFaërie. In the next passage it is doubtful whether it be the second or third sense; we think the latter.[388]This wife which is offaërie,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 thePhairie." 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 FayesFly 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 asoaf(formerly speltaulf), and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed fromelfby the usual change oflintou.[393]i. e.Pinch severely. The Ang.-Sax.old english tojoined to a verb or part. answers to the Germanzuorzer.old english to-bold english recanis to break to pieces,old english to-old english dold english riold english fanto drive asunder, scatter. Verbs of this kind occur in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, in Chaucer and elsewhere. The part. is often preceded byall, in the sense of the Germanganz, quite, with which some ignorantly join thetoasall-to ruffledin Comus, 380, instead ofall to-ruffled. In Golding's Ovid (p. 15) we meet "With rugged head as white as down, and garmentsall to-torn;" in Judges ix. 53, "andall to-brakehis 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. Fororphan, Warburton conjecturedouphen, fromouph.[395]The Anglo-Saxonold english Miold english daneaold english rold english dorold english geaold english rold english d;and is it not also plainly the Midgard of the Edda?[396]The origin of Mab is very uncertain; it may be a contraction of Habundia, see belowFrance. "Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of Shakspeare, "is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled by the wordqueen, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish, designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. cþen woman, whence bothqueenandquean. Voss is perhaps right andelf-queenmay have been used in the same manner as the DanishElle-quinde,Elle-konefor the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p.11) usingFairy-queen, as a translation forNympha.[397]i. e., Night-mare. "Many times," says Gull the fairy, "I get on men and women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain; for which they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare."Merry Pranks, etc. p. 42.[398]Auræque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,Dîque omnes nemorum, dîque omnes noctis, adeste.Ovid, Met.l. vii. 198.Ye ayres and winds, yeelvesof hills, of brooks, of woods, alone,Of standing lakes, and of the night—approach ye everich one.Golding.Golding seems to have regarded, by chance or with knowledge, the Elves as a higher species than the Fairies. Misled by the wordelves, Shakspeare makes sad confusion of classic and Gothic mythology.[399]Takesignifies here, to strike, to injure.And there he blasts the tree andtakesthe cattle.Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken.Surrey,Poems, p. 13, Ald. edit.In our old poetrytakealso signifies, to give.[400]But not a word of it,—'tis fairies' treasure,Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, Act iv. sc. 1.A prince's secrets are like fairy favours,Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered.Honest Man's Fortune.[401]We do not recollect having met with any account of this prank; but Jonson is usually so correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the popular belief.[402]Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony is, we believe, still practised in the north of England on St. Agnes' night. See Brand, i. 34.[403]Shakespeare gives different colours to the Fairies; and in some places they are still thought to be white. See p.306.[404]Act i. sc. 5. R. Dodsley's Old Plays, vii. p. 394. We quote this as the first notice we have met of the red caps of the fairies.[405]Brown, their author, was a native of Devon, the Pixy region; hence their accordance with the Pixy legends given above.[406]This is perhaps the dancing on the hearth of the fairy-ladies to which Milton alludes: see above, p.42. "Doth not the warm zeal of an English-man's devotion make them maintain and defend the social hearth as the sanctuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods, and the only court where thelady-fairies convene to dance and revel?"—Paradoxical Assertions, etc. 1664, quoted by Brand, ii. p. 504.[407]The reader will observe that the third sense of Fairy is the most usual one in Drayton. It occurs in its second sense two lines further on, twice in Nymphidia, and in the following passage of his third Eclogue,For learned Colin (Spenser) lays his pipes to gage,And is toFayriegone a pilgrimage,The more our moan.[408]Mr. Chalmers does not seem to have known that the Crickets were family of note in Fairy. Shakspeare (Merry Wives of Windsor) mentions a Fairy named Cricket; and no hint of Shakspeare's was lost upon Drayton.[409]In the Musarum Deliciæ.[410]This is a palpable mistake of the poet's. The Friar (see above, p.291) is the celebrated Friar Rush, who haunted houses, not fields, and was never the same with Jack-o'-the-Lanthorn. It was probably the name Rush, which suggestedrushlight, that caused Milton's error. He is the Brüder Rausch of Germany, the Broder Ruus of Denmark. His name is either as Grimm thinks,noise, or as Wolf (Von Bruodor Rauschen, p. xxviii.) deemsdrunkenness, our old word,rouse. Sir Walter Scott in a note on Marmion, says also "Friar Rush,aliasWill-o'-the-Wisp. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow and Jack-o'-Lanthorn," which is making precious confusion. Reginald Scot more correctly describes him as being "for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin,"i. e.Hödeken: see above, p.255.[411]Ben Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 499. We shall never cease to regret that the state to which literature has come in this country almost precludes even a hope of our ever being able to publish our meditated edition of Milton's poems for which we have been collecting materials these five and twenty years. It would have been very different from Todd's. [Published in 1859.][412]Evidently drawn from Dryden's Flower and Leaf.[413]We meet here for the last time with Fairy in its collective sense, or rather, perhaps, as the country:All Fairy shouted with a general voice[414]In Mr Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, will be found a good deal of Fairy poetry, for which we have not had space in this work.[415]Mr. Cromek. There was, we believe, some false dealing on the part of Allan Cunningham toward this gentleman, such as palming on him his own verses as traditionary ones. But the legends are genuine.[416]This answers to theDeenè Mâh, Good People, of the Highlands and Ireland. An old Scottish name, we may add, for a fairy seems to have been Bogle, akin to the English Pouke, Puck, Puckle; but differing from the Boggart. Thus Gawain Douglas says,OfBrownyisand ofBogglesfull is this Beuk.[417]Daemonologie, B. III. c. 5.[418]These elf-arrows are triangular pieces of flint, supposed to have been the heads of the arrows used by the aborigines. Though more plentiful in Scotland they are also found in England and Ireland, and were there also attached to the fairies, and the wounds were also only to be discerned by gifted eyes. In an Anglo-Saxon poem, there occur the wordsæold english saold english geold english scoold english tandýlold english faold english geold english scoold english t,i. e.arrow of the Gods, and arrow of the Elves. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 22.[419]"It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they repeated the rhymeFairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop,And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend!three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fourth furrow."—Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.[420]See above, pp.302,311. Graham also relates this legend in his Picturesque Sketches of Perthshire.[421]Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, p. 251. We are happy to have an opportunity of expressing the high feelings of respect and esteem which we entertain for this extraordinary man. Born in the lowest rank of society, and commencing life as a workman in a stone-quarry, he has, by the mere force of natural genius, become not only a most able geologist but an elegant writer, and a sound and discerning critic. Scotland seems to stand alone in producing such men.[422]He is named as we have seen (p. 351) by Gawain Douglas. King James says of him "The spirit called Brownie appeared like a rough man, and haunted divers houses without doing any evill, but doing, as it were, necessarie turns up and down the house; yet some are so blinded as to believe that their house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there."[423]Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.[424]Grimm (Deut. Mythol., p. 479) says it is the German Schellenrock,i. e., Bell-coat, from his coat being hung with bells like those of the fools. APūckhe says, once served in a convent in Mecklenburg, for thirty years, in kitchen, and stable, and the only reward he asked was "tunicam de diversis coloribus ettintinnabulisplenam."[425]Sketches of Perthshire, p. 245.[426]In what precedes, we have chiefly followed Mr. Cromek. Those anxious for further information will meet it in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and other works.[427]Mr. Croker says, that according to the Munster peasantry the ordinary attire of the Fairy is a black hat, green coat, white stockings, and red shoes.[428]In Irish as in Erse,irish uncial dirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial nemirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial t(deenè mâh).[429]See above, p.26.[430]They areirish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial a(shia),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial b dotirish uncial rirish uncial a(shifra),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial acirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial re(shicârè),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dot(shee),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dote(sheeè),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dotirish uncial ib(sheeidh) all denoting, spirit, fairy. The termirish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dotalso signifies a hag, and a hillock, and as an adjective, spiritual.[431]We never heard a fairy-legend from any of the Connaught-men with whom we conversed in our boyhood. Their tales were all of Finn-mac-Cool and his heroes.[432]In Irish,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial aoirish uncial ine(dhia eenè). We are inclined to think that he must have added,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial dirish uncial airish uncial rirish uncial dirish uncial aoirish uncial in,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial aoirish uncial ine(dhia dhardheen, dhia eenè),i.e.Thursday, Friday; for we can see no reason for omitting Thursday.[433]See below,BrittanyandSpain, in both of which the legend is more perfect; but it is impossible to say which is the original. Parnell's pleasing Fairy Tale is probably formed on this Irish version, yet it agrees more with the Breton legend.[434]This story may remind one of the Wonderful Lamp, and others. There is something of the same kind in the Pentamerone.[435]Inis, pronounced sometimesInch, (like the HebrewEe(אי) and the IndianDsib) is either island or coast, bank of sea or river. The Ang.-Sax.iold english g(ee) seems to have had the same extent of signification, hence Chelsea, Battersea, etc., which never could have been islands. Perhapsþeoold english rold english diold english g(worthy,worth) was similar, aswerd,werth, in German is an island.[436]Mr. Croker says this ismoruach, sea-maid; the only word we find in O'Reilly ismuirish uncial iirish uncial rirish uncial iṁmirish uncial geirish uncial aċ(múrirgach). We have met no term answering tomerman.[437]It is a rule of the Irish language, that the initial consonant of an oblique case, or of a wordin regimine, becomes aspirated; thusPooka(nom.),na Phooka(gen.),macson,a mhic(vic) my son.[438]In Irishlobirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial rcirish uncial iirish uncial n(lubárkin); the Ulster name is Logheryman, in Irishloċirish uncial airish uncial rmirish uncial airish uncial n(lucharman). For the Cork term Cluricaun, the Kerry Luricaun and the Tipperary Lurigadaun, we have found no equivalents in the Irish dictionaries. The shortoin Irish, we may observe, is pronounced as in French and Spanish,i. e.asuinbut,cut;ainearly asainfall. It may be added, on account of the following tales, that in Kildare and the adjoining counties the short Englishu, inbut,cut, etc., is invariably pronounced as inpull,full, while thisu, is pronounced as that inbut,cut.[439]The UlsterLucharmanalso has such an English look, that we should be tempted to derive it from the Ang.-Sax.lácan,lǽcan, to play. LokiLöjemand, or Loki Playman, is a name of the Eddaic deity Loki in the Danish ballads.[440]In the place of the Witch of Edmonton usually quoted with this,Lubrickis plainly the Latinlubricus.[441]It will be observed that these, as well as the Young Piper in the Appendix, are related in the character of a peasant. This was in accordance with a frame that was proposed for the Fairy Legends, but which proved too difficult of execution to be adopted.[442]Lit. Yellow-stick, the ragwort or ragweed, which grows to a great size in Ireland.[443]A kind of spade with but one step, used in Leinster.[444]All that is said in this legend about the beer is a pure fiction, for we never heard of a Leprechaun drinking or smoking. It is, however, a tradition of the peasantry, that the Danes used to make beer of the heath. It was a Protestant farmer in the county of Cavan, that showed such knowledge of the siege of Derry; the Catholic gardener who told us this story, knew far better. It is also the popular belief that the Danes keep up their claim on Ireland, and that a Danish father, when marrying his daughter, gives her a portion in Ireland.[445]i. e.Felix. On account of the Romish custom of naming after Saints, Felix, Thaddæus, Terence, Augustine, etc., are common names among the peasantry.[446]In our Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 16, we noticed the coincidence between this and a passage in an Arabic author. We did not then recollect the following verses of Milton,The willows and the hazle copses greenShall now no more be seenFanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.Lycidas, 42.The simile of the moon among the stars in the same place, we have since found in the Nibelungen Lied (st. 285), and in some of our old poets, and Hammer says (Sehirin i. note 7), that it occurs even to satiety in Oriental poetry. In like manner Camoens' simile of the mirror, mentioned in the same place, occurs in Poliziano's Stanze i. 64.[447]Account of the Highlands, etc. iv. 358.[448]Men of Peace, perhaps theStille-folk, Still-people, or rather, merely Fairy- or Spirit-people. See above p.364.[449]See Stewart, The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders. Edinburgh, 1823. As Mr. Stewart's mode of narrating is not the very best, we have taken the liberty of re-writing and abridging the legends.[450]"The goats are supposed to be upon a very good understanding with the fairies, and possessed of more cunning and knowledge than their appearance bespeaks."—Stewart: seeWales.[451]See above, p.305.[452]There is a similar legend in Scandinavia. As a smith was at work in his forge late one evening, he heard great wailing out on the road, and by the light of the red-hot iron that he was hammering, he saw a woman whom a Troll was driving along, bawling at her "A little more! a little more!" He ran out, put the red-hot iron between them, and thus delivered her from the power of the Troll (see p.108). He led her into his house and that night she was delivered of twins. In the morning he waited on her husband, who he supposed must be in great affliction at the loss of his wife. But to his surprise he saw there, in bed, a woman the very image of her he had saved from the Troll. Knowing at once what she must be, he raised an axe he had in his hand, and cleft her skull. The matter was soon explained to the satisfaction of the husband, who gladly received his real wife and her twins.—Thiele, i. 88.Oral.[453]Told, without naming his authority, by the late W. S. Rose, in the Quarterly Review for 1825.[454]Description of the Isle of Man. London, 1731.[455]In his Essay on Fairies in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and in the notes on Peveril of the Peak.[456]Train, Account of the Isle of Man, ii. p. 148.[457]A lake, on whose banks Taliesin resided.[458]These Mr. Davies thinks correspond to the Gallicenæ of Mela: seeBrittany.[459]Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriæ, l. i. c. 8, translated by Sir R. C. Hoare.[460]Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should know any thing of Plato or of Marco Polo, especially as the latter was not yet born![461]Book i. chap. 12.[462]Mythology and Rites of the British Druids.[463]Abridged from "A Day at the Van Pools;" MS. of Miss Beale, the author of "Poems" and of "The Vale of the Towey," a most delightful volume. We have since received from our gifted friend the following additional information. "Since writing this letter, I have heard a new version of the last part of the Spirit of the Van. The third offence is said to be, that she and her husband wereploughing; he guiding the plough, and she driving the horses. The horses went wrong, and the husband took up something and threw it at them, which struck her. She seized the plough and went off, followed by the flocks and herds she had brought with her to Van Pool, where they all vanished, and themark of the ploughshareis shown on the mountain at this present day. She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors. Jones was their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for the healing art; as for many generations, seven sons were regularly born in each family, the seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in his profession. It is said even now, that the Jones of Muddfi are, or were, until very recently, clever doctors."—A. B. A somewhat different version of this legend is given by Mr. Croker, iii. 256.[464]For the chief part of our knowledge respecting the fairy lore of Wales we are indebted to the third or supplemental volume of the Fairy Legends, in which Mr. Croker, with the aid of Dr. Owen Pugh and other Welsh scholars, has given a fuller account of the superstitions of the people of the Principality, than is, we believe, to be found any where else.[465]A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the Principality of Wales, by the Rev. Edward Jones of the Tiarch.—For our extracts from this work we are indebted to Mr. Croker.[466]The lady's name was Williams. The legends were originally intended for the present work, but circumstances caused them to appear in the supplemental volume of the Irish Fairy Legends. We have abridged them.[467]Gitto is the dim. of Griffith:bach(begIr.) is little.[468]SeeBrittany.[469]Poésies de Marie de France, par De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. If any one should suspect that these are not genuine translations from the Breton, his doubts will be dispelled by reading the original of the Lai du Laustic in the Barzan-Breiz (i. 24) presently to be noticed.[470]See above, p.21.[471]The Bas-BretonKorriganorKorrigwendiffers, as we may see, but little fromGallican. Strabo (i. p. 304) says that Demeter andKorawere worshipped in an island in these parts.[472]Sena is supposed to be L'Isle des Saints, nearly opposite Brest.[473]Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.[474]It might seem hardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. Yet some have taken them for old English verses.[475]
And you whose pastimeIs to make midnight mushrooms.—Tempest, v. 1.
And you whose pastimeIs to make midnight mushrooms.—Tempest, v. 1.
[371]Jack-o'-the-lanthorn, Will-o'-the-wisp. In Worcestershire they call it Hob-and-his-lanthorn, and Hobany's- or Hobredy's-lanthorn. Allies,ut sup.
[372]Knight of the Burning Pestle: see above, p.309.
[373]Ardis the Germanhart, and is, like it, depreciatory. It is not an Anglo-Saxon termination, but from the Anglo-Saxonold english doll,dull, we havedullard. May nothaggardbehawk-ard, and the Frenchhagardbe derived from it, and not the reverse?
[374]For in Anglo-Saxonáttorcoppe(Poison-head?) is spider, and fromáttorcoppe-web, by the usual aphœresis of the two first syllables we putcoppe-web, cobweb. May not the same have been the case withlob? and may not the nastybugbe in a similar manner connected with Puck? Asdvergsnatis in Swedish a cobweb, one might be tempted to suppose that this last, for which no good etymon has been offered, waslob-web; but the true etymon iscop-web, from its usual site.
Upon thecopright of his nose he heddeA wert.—Chaucer,Cant. Tales,v.556.
Upon thecopright of his nose he heddeA wert.—Chaucer,Cant. Tales,v.556.
[375]Deut. Mythol. p. 492.
[376]SeeFrance.Inis a mere termination, perhaps, likeon, a diminutive, as inCatinKate,RobinBob.Lutinwas also speltLuyton: see p.42.
[377]The two lines which follow
Fro the nightes mare the witè Paternoster!Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster?
Fro the nightes mare the witè Paternoster!Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster?
are rather perplexing. We would explain them thus. Bergerac, as quoted by Brand (Pop. Antiq. i. 312. Bohn's edit.) makes a magician say "I teach the shepherds the wolf's paternoster,"i. e.one that keeps off the wolf.Witemay then bei. q. wight, andwight paternosterbe a safeguard against the wights, and we would read the verse thus: "Fro the nightes mare the wite paternoster"sc. blisse itorus. St. Peter'ssuster,i. e.wife (see I Cor. ix. 5) may have been canonised in the popular creed, and held to be potent against evil beings. The termsusterwas used probably to obviate the scandal of supposing the first Pope to have been a married man. This charm is given at greater length and with some variations by Cartwright in his Ordinary, Act iii. sc. 1.
[378]He derives it from the Frenchoursin, but the Ang.-Sax. name of the hedgehog iseold english rold english scen.
[379]Athenæum, Oct. 9, 1847.
[380]Hist. of England, i. 478, 8vo edit.
[381]Deut. Mythol. p. 419.
[382]Layamon's Brut, etc., by Sir Frederick Madden.
[383]Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. viii. We do not wonder that this should have eluded previous observation, but it is really surprising that we should have been the first to observe the resemblance between Ariosto's tale of Giocondo and the introductory tale of the Thousand and One Nights. It is also strange that no one should have noticed the similarity between Ossian's Carthon and the tale of Soohrâb in the Shâh-nâmeh.
[384]Both here and lower down we would takefaëriein its first sense.
[385]Thrope,thorpe, ordorp, is a village, the Germandorf; Dutchdorp; we may still find it in the names of places, as Althorpe.Dorpoccurs frequently in Drayton's Polyolbion; it is also used by Dryden, Hind and Panther,v.1905.
[386]Undermelesi. e.undertide(p 51), aftermeal, afternoon.
[387]This is the third sense ofFaërie. In the next passage it is doubtful whether it be the second or third sense; we think the latter.
[388]
This wife which is offaërie,Of such a childe delivered is,Fro kindè which stante all amis.Gower,Legende of Constance.
This wife which is offaërie,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 thePhairie." 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.
'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 FayesFly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.Milton,Ode on the Nativity, 235.
And the yellow-skirted FayesFly 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 asoaf(formerly speltaulf), and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed fromelfby the usual change oflintou.
[393]i. e.Pinch severely. The Ang.-Sax.old english tojoined to a verb or part. answers to the Germanzuorzer.old english to-bold english recanis to break to pieces,old english to-old english dold english riold english fanto drive asunder, scatter. Verbs of this kind occur in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, in Chaucer and elsewhere. The part. is often preceded byall, in the sense of the Germanganz, quite, with which some ignorantly join thetoasall-to ruffledin Comus, 380, instead ofall to-ruffled. In Golding's Ovid (p. 15) we meet "With rugged head as white as down, and garmentsall to-torn;" in Judges ix. 53, "andall to-brakehis 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. Fororphan, Warburton conjecturedouphen, fromouph.
[395]The Anglo-Saxonold english Miold english daneaold english rold english dorold english geaold english rold english d;and is it not also plainly the Midgard of the Edda?
[396]The origin of Mab is very uncertain; it may be a contraction of Habundia, see belowFrance. "Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of Shakspeare, "is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled by the wordqueen, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish, designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. cþen woman, whence bothqueenandquean. Voss is perhaps right andelf-queenmay have been used in the same manner as the DanishElle-quinde,Elle-konefor the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p.11) usingFairy-queen, as a translation forNympha.
[397]i. e., Night-mare. "Many times," says Gull the fairy, "I get on men and women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain; for which they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare."Merry Pranks, etc. p. 42.
[398]
Auræque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,Dîque omnes nemorum, dîque omnes noctis, adeste.Ovid, Met.l. vii. 198.Ye ayres and winds, yeelvesof hills, of brooks, of woods, alone,Of standing lakes, and of the night—approach ye everich one.Golding.
Auræque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,Dîque omnes nemorum, dîque omnes noctis, adeste.Ovid, Met.l. vii. 198.
Ye ayres and winds, yeelvesof hills, of brooks, of woods, alone,Of standing lakes, and of the night—approach ye everich one.Golding.
Golding seems to have regarded, by chance or with knowledge, the Elves as a higher species than the Fairies. Misled by the wordelves, Shakspeare makes sad confusion of classic and Gothic mythology.
[399]Takesignifies here, to strike, to injure.
And there he blasts the tree andtakesthe cattle.Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken.Surrey,Poems, p. 13, Ald. edit.
And there he blasts the tree andtakesthe cattle.Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4.
Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken.Surrey,Poems, p. 13, Ald. edit.
In our old poetrytakealso signifies, to give.
[400]
But not a word of it,—'tis fairies' treasure,Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, Act iv. sc. 1.A prince's secrets are like fairy favours,Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered.Honest Man's Fortune.
But not a word of it,—'tis fairies' treasure,Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, Act iv. sc. 1.
A prince's secrets are like fairy favours,Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered.Honest Man's Fortune.
[401]We do not recollect having met with any account of this prank; but Jonson is usually so correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the popular belief.
[402]Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony is, we believe, still practised in the north of England on St. Agnes' night. See Brand, i. 34.
[403]Shakespeare gives different colours to the Fairies; and in some places they are still thought to be white. See p.306.
[404]Act i. sc. 5. R. Dodsley's Old Plays, vii. p. 394. We quote this as the first notice we have met of the red caps of the fairies.
[405]Brown, their author, was a native of Devon, the Pixy region; hence their accordance with the Pixy legends given above.
[406]This is perhaps the dancing on the hearth of the fairy-ladies to which Milton alludes: see above, p.42. "Doth not the warm zeal of an English-man's devotion make them maintain and defend the social hearth as the sanctuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods, and the only court where thelady-fairies convene to dance and revel?"—Paradoxical Assertions, etc. 1664, quoted by Brand, ii. p. 504.
[407]The reader will observe that the third sense of Fairy is the most usual one in Drayton. It occurs in its second sense two lines further on, twice in Nymphidia, and in the following passage of his third Eclogue,
For learned Colin (Spenser) lays his pipes to gage,And is toFayriegone a pilgrimage,The more our moan.
For learned Colin (Spenser) lays his pipes to gage,And is toFayriegone a pilgrimage,The more our moan.
[408]Mr. Chalmers does not seem to have known that the Crickets were family of note in Fairy. Shakspeare (Merry Wives of Windsor) mentions a Fairy named Cricket; and no hint of Shakspeare's was lost upon Drayton.
[409]In the Musarum Deliciæ.
[410]This is a palpable mistake of the poet's. The Friar (see above, p.291) is the celebrated Friar Rush, who haunted houses, not fields, and was never the same with Jack-o'-the-Lanthorn. It was probably the name Rush, which suggestedrushlight, that caused Milton's error. He is the Brüder Rausch of Germany, the Broder Ruus of Denmark. His name is either as Grimm thinks,noise, or as Wolf (Von Bruodor Rauschen, p. xxviii.) deemsdrunkenness, our old word,rouse. Sir Walter Scott in a note on Marmion, says also "Friar Rush,aliasWill-o'-the-Wisp. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow and Jack-o'-Lanthorn," which is making precious confusion. Reginald Scot more correctly describes him as being "for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin,"i. e.Hödeken: see above, p.255.
[411]Ben Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 499. We shall never cease to regret that the state to which literature has come in this country almost precludes even a hope of our ever being able to publish our meditated edition of Milton's poems for which we have been collecting materials these five and twenty years. It would have been very different from Todd's. [Published in 1859.]
[412]Evidently drawn from Dryden's Flower and Leaf.
[413]We meet here for the last time with Fairy in its collective sense, or rather, perhaps, as the country:
All Fairy shouted with a general voice
All Fairy shouted with a general voice
[414]In Mr Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, will be found a good deal of Fairy poetry, for which we have not had space in this work.
[415]Mr. Cromek. There was, we believe, some false dealing on the part of Allan Cunningham toward this gentleman, such as palming on him his own verses as traditionary ones. But the legends are genuine.
[416]This answers to theDeenè Mâh, Good People, of the Highlands and Ireland. An old Scottish name, we may add, for a fairy seems to have been Bogle, akin to the English Pouke, Puck, Puckle; but differing from the Boggart. Thus Gawain Douglas says,
OfBrownyisand ofBogglesfull is this Beuk.
OfBrownyisand ofBogglesfull is this Beuk.
[417]Daemonologie, B. III. c. 5.
[418]These elf-arrows are triangular pieces of flint, supposed to have been the heads of the arrows used by the aborigines. Though more plentiful in Scotland they are also found in England and Ireland, and were there also attached to the fairies, and the wounds were also only to be discerned by gifted eyes. In an Anglo-Saxon poem, there occur the wordsæold english saold english geold english scoold english tandýlold english faold english geold english scoold english t,i. e.arrow of the Gods, and arrow of the Elves. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 22.
[419]"It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they repeated the rhyme
Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop,And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend!
Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop,And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend!
three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fourth furrow."—Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.
[420]See above, pp.302,311. Graham also relates this legend in his Picturesque Sketches of Perthshire.
[421]Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, p. 251. We are happy to have an opportunity of expressing the high feelings of respect and esteem which we entertain for this extraordinary man. Born in the lowest rank of society, and commencing life as a workman in a stone-quarry, he has, by the mere force of natural genius, become not only a most able geologist but an elegant writer, and a sound and discerning critic. Scotland seems to stand alone in producing such men.
[422]He is named as we have seen (p. 351) by Gawain Douglas. King James says of him "The spirit called Brownie appeared like a rough man, and haunted divers houses without doing any evill, but doing, as it were, necessarie turns up and down the house; yet some are so blinded as to believe that their house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there."
[423]Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.
[424]Grimm (Deut. Mythol., p. 479) says it is the German Schellenrock,i. e., Bell-coat, from his coat being hung with bells like those of the fools. APūckhe says, once served in a convent in Mecklenburg, for thirty years, in kitchen, and stable, and the only reward he asked was "tunicam de diversis coloribus ettintinnabulisplenam."
[425]Sketches of Perthshire, p. 245.
[426]In what precedes, we have chiefly followed Mr. Cromek. Those anxious for further information will meet it in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and other works.
[427]Mr. Croker says, that according to the Munster peasantry the ordinary attire of the Fairy is a black hat, green coat, white stockings, and red shoes.
[428]In Irish as in Erse,irish uncial dirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial nemirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial t(deenè mâh).
[429]See above, p.26.
[430]They areirish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial a(shia),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial b dotirish uncial rirish uncial a(shifra),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial acirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial re(shicârè),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dot(shee),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dote(sheeè),irish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dotirish uncial ib(sheeidh) all denoting, spirit, fairy. The termirish uncial sirish uncial iirish uncial g dotalso signifies a hag, and a hillock, and as an adjective, spiritual.
[431]We never heard a fairy-legend from any of the Connaught-men with whom we conversed in our boyhood. Their tales were all of Finn-mac-Cool and his heroes.
[432]In Irish,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial aoirish uncial ine(dhia eenè). We are inclined to think that he must have added,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial dirish uncial airish uncial rirish uncial dirish uncial aoirish uncial in,irish uncial dirish uncial iirish uncial airish uncial aoirish uncial ine(dhia dhardheen, dhia eenè),i.e.Thursday, Friday; for we can see no reason for omitting Thursday.
[433]See below,BrittanyandSpain, in both of which the legend is more perfect; but it is impossible to say which is the original. Parnell's pleasing Fairy Tale is probably formed on this Irish version, yet it agrees more with the Breton legend.
[434]This story may remind one of the Wonderful Lamp, and others. There is something of the same kind in the Pentamerone.
[435]Inis, pronounced sometimesInch, (like the HebrewEe(אי) and the IndianDsib) is either island or coast, bank of sea or river. The Ang.-Sax.iold english g(ee) seems to have had the same extent of signification, hence Chelsea, Battersea, etc., which never could have been islands. Perhapsþeoold english rold english diold english g(worthy,worth) was similar, aswerd,werth, in German is an island.
[436]Mr. Croker says this ismoruach, sea-maid; the only word we find in O'Reilly ismuirish uncial iirish uncial rirish uncial iṁmirish uncial geirish uncial aċ(múrirgach). We have met no term answering tomerman.
[437]It is a rule of the Irish language, that the initial consonant of an oblique case, or of a wordin regimine, becomes aspirated; thusPooka(nom.),na Phooka(gen.),macson,a mhic(vic) my son.
[438]In Irishlobirish uncial airish uncial iirish uncial rcirish uncial iirish uncial n(lubárkin); the Ulster name is Logheryman, in Irishloċirish uncial airish uncial rmirish uncial airish uncial n(lucharman). For the Cork term Cluricaun, the Kerry Luricaun and the Tipperary Lurigadaun, we have found no equivalents in the Irish dictionaries. The shortoin Irish, we may observe, is pronounced as in French and Spanish,i. e.asuinbut,cut;ainearly asainfall. It may be added, on account of the following tales, that in Kildare and the adjoining counties the short Englishu, inbut,cut, etc., is invariably pronounced as inpull,full, while thisu, is pronounced as that inbut,cut.
[439]The UlsterLucharmanalso has such an English look, that we should be tempted to derive it from the Ang.-Sax.lácan,lǽcan, to play. LokiLöjemand, or Loki Playman, is a name of the Eddaic deity Loki in the Danish ballads.
[440]In the place of the Witch of Edmonton usually quoted with this,Lubrickis plainly the Latinlubricus.
[441]It will be observed that these, as well as the Young Piper in the Appendix, are related in the character of a peasant. This was in accordance with a frame that was proposed for the Fairy Legends, but which proved too difficult of execution to be adopted.
[442]Lit. Yellow-stick, the ragwort or ragweed, which grows to a great size in Ireland.
[443]A kind of spade with but one step, used in Leinster.
[444]All that is said in this legend about the beer is a pure fiction, for we never heard of a Leprechaun drinking or smoking. It is, however, a tradition of the peasantry, that the Danes used to make beer of the heath. It was a Protestant farmer in the county of Cavan, that showed such knowledge of the siege of Derry; the Catholic gardener who told us this story, knew far better. It is also the popular belief that the Danes keep up their claim on Ireland, and that a Danish father, when marrying his daughter, gives her a portion in Ireland.
[445]i. e.Felix. On account of the Romish custom of naming after Saints, Felix, Thaddæus, Terence, Augustine, etc., are common names among the peasantry.
[446]In our Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 16, we noticed the coincidence between this and a passage in an Arabic author. We did not then recollect the following verses of Milton,
The willows and the hazle copses greenShall now no more be seenFanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.Lycidas, 42.
The willows and the hazle copses greenShall now no more be seenFanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.Lycidas, 42.
The simile of the moon among the stars in the same place, we have since found in the Nibelungen Lied (st. 285), and in some of our old poets, and Hammer says (Sehirin i. note 7), that it occurs even to satiety in Oriental poetry. In like manner Camoens' simile of the mirror, mentioned in the same place, occurs in Poliziano's Stanze i. 64.
[447]Account of the Highlands, etc. iv. 358.
[448]Men of Peace, perhaps theStille-folk, Still-people, or rather, merely Fairy- or Spirit-people. See above p.364.
[449]See Stewart, The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders. Edinburgh, 1823. As Mr. Stewart's mode of narrating is not the very best, we have taken the liberty of re-writing and abridging the legends.
[450]"The goats are supposed to be upon a very good understanding with the fairies, and possessed of more cunning and knowledge than their appearance bespeaks."—Stewart: seeWales.
[451]See above, p.305.
[452]There is a similar legend in Scandinavia. As a smith was at work in his forge late one evening, he heard great wailing out on the road, and by the light of the red-hot iron that he was hammering, he saw a woman whom a Troll was driving along, bawling at her "A little more! a little more!" He ran out, put the red-hot iron between them, and thus delivered her from the power of the Troll (see p.108). He led her into his house and that night she was delivered of twins. In the morning he waited on her husband, who he supposed must be in great affliction at the loss of his wife. But to his surprise he saw there, in bed, a woman the very image of her he had saved from the Troll. Knowing at once what she must be, he raised an axe he had in his hand, and cleft her skull. The matter was soon explained to the satisfaction of the husband, who gladly received his real wife and her twins.—Thiele, i. 88.Oral.
[453]Told, without naming his authority, by the late W. S. Rose, in the Quarterly Review for 1825.
[454]Description of the Isle of Man. London, 1731.
[455]In his Essay on Fairies in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and in the notes on Peveril of the Peak.
[456]Train, Account of the Isle of Man, ii. p. 148.
[457]A lake, on whose banks Taliesin resided.
[458]These Mr. Davies thinks correspond to the Gallicenæ of Mela: seeBrittany.
[459]Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriæ, l. i. c. 8, translated by Sir R. C. Hoare.
[460]Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should know any thing of Plato or of Marco Polo, especially as the latter was not yet born!
[461]Book i. chap. 12.
[462]Mythology and Rites of the British Druids.
[463]Abridged from "A Day at the Van Pools;" MS. of Miss Beale, the author of "Poems" and of "The Vale of the Towey," a most delightful volume. We have since received from our gifted friend the following additional information. "Since writing this letter, I have heard a new version of the last part of the Spirit of the Van. The third offence is said to be, that she and her husband wereploughing; he guiding the plough, and she driving the horses. The horses went wrong, and the husband took up something and threw it at them, which struck her. She seized the plough and went off, followed by the flocks and herds she had brought with her to Van Pool, where they all vanished, and themark of the ploughshareis shown on the mountain at this present day. She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors. Jones was their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for the healing art; as for many generations, seven sons were regularly born in each family, the seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in his profession. It is said even now, that the Jones of Muddfi are, or were, until very recently, clever doctors."—A. B. A somewhat different version of this legend is given by Mr. Croker, iii. 256.
[464]For the chief part of our knowledge respecting the fairy lore of Wales we are indebted to the third or supplemental volume of the Fairy Legends, in which Mr. Croker, with the aid of Dr. Owen Pugh and other Welsh scholars, has given a fuller account of the superstitions of the people of the Principality, than is, we believe, to be found any where else.
[465]A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the Principality of Wales, by the Rev. Edward Jones of the Tiarch.—For our extracts from this work we are indebted to Mr. Croker.
[466]The lady's name was Williams. The legends were originally intended for the present work, but circumstances caused them to appear in the supplemental volume of the Irish Fairy Legends. We have abridged them.
[467]Gitto is the dim. of Griffith:bach(begIr.) is little.
[468]SeeBrittany.
[469]Poésies de Marie de France, par De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. If any one should suspect that these are not genuine translations from the Breton, his doubts will be dispelled by reading the original of the Lai du Laustic in the Barzan-Breiz (i. 24) presently to be noticed.
[470]See above, p.21.
[471]The Bas-BretonKorriganorKorrigwendiffers, as we may see, but little fromGallican. Strabo (i. p. 304) says that Demeter andKorawere worshipped in an island in these parts.
[472]Sena is supposed to be L'Isle des Saints, nearly opposite Brest.
[473]Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.
[474]It might seem hardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. Yet some have taken them for old English verses.
[475]