Shakespeare’s Fairies

2009 August 16

tags: fairies, literature

by 5 Orange Potatoes

I’m working on a Shakespeare unit for the Little Ladies. Of course, being fairy lovers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the perfect place to start!

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire!

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon’s sphere;

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green;

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours;

In those freckles live their savours;

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

-William Shakespeare

I read a wonderful article about Shakespeare and the fairies, The Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare by Alfred Nutt. The article includes a list of characteristics of Shakespeare’s fairies and elves, which Shakespeare considered one and the same. I found this list very entertaining and have a lot of the same views of the fairy folk. I find it so curious that a writer of the late 1500’s still influences our view of fairies today.

a. They form a community under a king and queen.

b. They are exceedingly small.

c. They move with extreme swiftness.

d. They are elemental airy spirits; their brawls incense the wind and moon, and cause tempests; they take a share in the life of nature; live on fruit; deck the cowslips with dewdrops; war with noxious insects and reptiles; overcast the sky with fog.

e. They dance upon the green.

f. They sing hymns and carols to the moon.

g. They are invisible and apparently immortal.

h. They come forth mainly at night.

i. They fall in love with mortals.

j. They steal babies and leave changelings.

k. They come to bless the best bride-bed and make the increase therefore fortunate.