fairy land" and Shakspeare, the poet of popular fuperftition, has introduced her in the MidfummerNight's Dream. She was fupposed to have held her court in the higheft magnificence, in the reign of king Arthur; a circumftance, by which the tranfcendent happinefs of that golden age, was originally reprefented in it's legendary chronicles. Thus Chaucer, Wife of Bathes T. v. 857. edit. Urr. "In the old dayis of the king Arthure,

"Of which the Britons fpeken great honour;
"All was this lond fulfillid of fayry:
"The ELF-QUENE, with her jolly company,
"Daunfid full oft in many a grene

mede:

"This was the old opinion, as I rede."

Hence too we find, that Spenfer followed the eftablished tradition, in fuppofing his Fairy Queen to exift in the age of Arthur.

In Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, mentioned

together with a FAIRY LAND] It is remarkable that Mr. Warton should have omitted to notice the FAIRY LAND and the OBERON of the old popular romance, Huon de Bordeaux; more especially as Spenfer particularly refers to the hero, and to his fairy-protector, F. Q. ii. i. 6. where fee the note. TODD.

• It appears from John Marfton's fatires, entitled the SCOURGE OF VILLANIE, three bookes of fatyres, and printed in the year 1598, that our Author's FAERIE QUEENE Occafioned many publications, in which fairies were the principal actors, viz. In Lectores.

"Go buy some ballad of the FAERY KING." And in another place, B. iii. fat. 6.

"At length fome wonted fleepe doth crowne "His new-falne lids; dreames, ftraight tenne pound to one "Out-steps fome FAERY with quick motion,

"And tells him wonders of fome flowrie vale

"Awakes, straite rubs his eyes, and prints his tale."

And I have feen a romance, which feems to have been written foon after Spenfer's poem, entitled, THE RED-ROSEKNIGHT; where the knight, after the example of prince Arthur, goes in fearch of the Fairy Queen. T. WARTON.

above, the knight, like Spenfer's Arthur, goes in fearch of a Fairy Queen:

"An ELF-QUENE well I love, I wis,
"For in this world no woman is,

"Worthy to be my make;
"All othir womin I forfake,
"And to an ELF-QUENE I me take
By dale and eke by doune.

"Into his faddle he clombe anone,
"And pricked over ftyle and stone
"An ELF-QUENE to efpie,
"Till he fo long had ridden and gone,
"That he fonde in a privie wone,

"The countre of FAIRIE."

He then meets a terrible giant, who threatens him with destruction, for entering that country, and tells him;

"Here wonnith the QUENE OF FAIRIE,
"With harpe, and pipe, and fimphonie,
"Within this place and boure;

The Child faid, alfo mote I the
To morrow woll I metin The

"Whan I have mine armoure.'

In Chaucer it appears that Fairy-land, and Fairies, were fometimes used for hell, and its ideal inhabitants. Thus in the Marchant's Tale, v. 221. "Pluto that is king of FAYRIE."

Again,

"Proferpine and all her FAYRIE." In the fame: "And I, quoth the Quene, [Proferpine] am of FAYRIE.' In the Knight's Tale, when the brafen horfe was brought into Cambufcan's hall, "It was of FAYRIE, as the people deem'd." That is, "the people thought this wonderful horse was the work of the devil, and made. in hell." And in the romance of the Seven Champions, Proferpine is called the FAIRY Queen, and

faid "to fit crowned amongst her FAYRIES." P. 1. ch. 16. In Harfenet's Declaration of Popish Impofture, &c. 1602. pag. 57, ch. 12, Mercury is called "Prince of the FAIRIES."

This fiction of the Fairies, is fuppofed to have been brought, with other fantastick extravagancies of the like nature, from the Eaftern nations, while the European Chriftians were engaged in the holy war; thofe expeditions being the firft fubjects of the elder romance. Thefe are the words of one [Warburton] who has shown his masterly skill and penetration in every part of literature. "Nor were the monftrous embellishments of enchantments, &c. the invention of the romancers; but formed upon Eaftern tales, brought thence by travellers from their crufades and pilgrimages, which indeed have a caft peculiar to the wild imagination of the eaftern people."

P from the Eastern nations, &c.] I think we ought not to difcard the resemblance of the claffical Nymphs and Naiads. But fee Remarks on the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Richard Hole, LL. B. 1797, p. 14. where the learned author refers the reader to Mr. Kinderfley's Specimens of Hindoo Literature, from which, he fays, we may be induced to fufpect, that the Daivers were the progenitors of the Fairies and inoffenfive Genii, both in oriental and northern mythology.

we

From the Perfian Peri MERJAN, Mr. Hole remarks, “ may fairly derive Ariofto's La Fata MORGANA, whose existence is ftill unquestioned by the vulgar in fome parts of Italy. To the exertion of her fupernatural powers they even now attribute a peculiar appearance, which the fky occafionally exhibits during the heat of fummer over the strait between Calabria and Sicily. Palaces, groves, and gardens, appear in beautiful order and rapid fucceffion. It is mentioned by Mr. Brydone, and. accounted for by Mr. Swinburn in a fatisfactory manner in the firft volume of his Travels into Sicily. From her likewise our MORGAN la Faye; the patronefs of Arthur in romantick love, and his conductrefs to the Land of Faery. She was probably imported into Europe from the East at a very early period, with other beings of the fame unfubftantial nature, who now people the ideal regions of northern mythology." TODD. VOL. IN

g

That the Fairies, in particular, came from the Eaft, the teftimony of M. Herbelot will more fully confirm; who tells us, that the Perfians call the Fairies Peri; and the Arabs, Ginn; that they feign, there is a certain country inhabited by them, called Ginniftian, which anfwers to our Fairy-land; and that the ancient romances of Perfia are full of Peri or Fairies. See alfo Ginn, or Gian, in Herbelot; under the latter of which, that learned orientalift further informs us, that there is an Arabian book, entitled, "Pieces de corail amaffées fur ce qui regarde le GINNES, ou Genies."

The notions however, fo effential to books of chivalry, of giants, necromancers, enchantments, &c. were perhaps established, although not univerfally, in Europe, before the time of the Crusades. All the Sagas, or ancient Iflandick hiftories, are full of them. The Fairies, in particular, held a very important rank in the old Celtick mythology'. The northern nations called them Duergar, or Dwarfs. Thus the fword Tirfing, in the Scaldick dialogue between Hervor and Angantyr, is called Duerga Smidi, the work of the Dwarfs. This strengthens the hypothefis of the northern part of

Littleness is not always implied in Fairy. Thus we have Morgan la FAY, Morgan the FAIRY, one of the queens in La Morte d'Arthur, an ELFIN Lady. She is called Morgan la FEE in the French romance," La TABLE RONDE, autrement dit LAUNCELOT du LAKE," in two folio volumes: The firft of which was printed at Rouen, 1428, by John le Bourgeois, The Second, at Paris, in the fame year, by John de Pre. They are faid (fol. ult. vol. 2.) to be extracted from many true hiftories, by Gualtier de Map. There is also a French romance of the Achievement of the SANGRAAL, by Robert 'de Borron. T. WARTON.

• See Hervarer Saga of Olaus Verelius, fol. pag. 44, 45. And Ilickes's Thefaur. tom. 2. pag. 311. et feq. per H. Wanley. See alfo what is faid above concerning Elfe. T. WARTON.

Hickes's Thefaur. vol. 1. pag. 193. cap. 23. T. WARTON,

Europe, particularly Scandinavia, being peopled by colonies from the Eaft, under the command of their general, or god, ODIN. It is well known, how ftrongly the fuperftitious belief of fpirits, or invifible agents, affigned to different parts of nature, "prevails even in Scotland at this day.

Our old romantick hiftory fuppofes, that Arthur ftill reigns in Fairy-Land, from which he will one day return to Britain, and re-establish the round table in it's original fplendour. See Lydgate's Fall of Princes, b. 8. ch. 25.

"He is a king ycrownid in Fairie,

"With fcepter, and fword: and with his regally
"Shall refort as lord and foveraigne

"Out of Fairie, and reigne in Britaine ;

"And repair again the old round table :

"By prophecy Merlin fet the date."

The fame tradition is mentioned by Cervantes in Don Quixote, P. i. ch. 5.

Many other examples might be alleged, from which it would be more abundantly manifefted, that our author's imagination was entirely poffeffed with that species of reading, which was the fashion and the delight of his age. The lovers of Spenfer, I hope, will not think I have been too tedious in a difquifition, which has contributed not only to illuftrate many particular paffages in their favourite poet, but to difplay the general caft and colour of his poem. Some there are, who will cenfure what I have collected on this fubject, as both trifling and uninteresting; but fuch readers can have no tafte for Spenfer. T. WARTON.

" prevails even in Scotland at this day.] The reader may be highly amufed by an interefting Effay on the prevalence of this belief in Scotland, entitled On the Fairies of Popular Superstition, and prefixed as an introduction to the romantick tale of Tamlane, in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, vol. ii. p. 167, &c. TODD.