Elizabethan Fairies in Comparison to Shakespearean Fairies
In Shakespeare’s greatest fairy poem, he tests the range of early modern connections among fairylore. ... After Shakespeare and Drayton, the idea of fairies as being fragile, small, and a “benevolent” spirit started to become the norm. ... In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare reveals his rich imagination with his portrayal of fairies that closely followed the traditional beliefs in the Renaissance period. ... Shakespeare’s fairies were exceedingly diminutive in their natural shape, but could also assume a human size. ... The fairies are so small that they are able to hide in acorn cups. ... This gives evidence that the tiny fairies must have been so native to Shakespeare’s mind that he could hardly help imagining them so.
Hardly less striking than their size is the benevolence of these fairies. ... The fairies are always glad to do a certain amount of mischief, but usually with good intentions. ... Thisleton Dyer suggests that fairies were frequently said to reward good servants and the object of their blessings was to bring peace (19). ... Fairies were also represented as great lovers and “patrons” cleanliness and “propriety”, amongst their good rewards on servants ( Dyer 18). ...
Among fairies kind nature, they were believed to be quick and quiet on their missions. Dyer writes that fairies were “amazingly expeditious in their journeys” (20). ... Shakespeare used these lines to reveal the speed and accuracy of the fairies, as they are able to travel the earth faster than any human.
At the same time, it was considered “unlucky” to reveal the fairies acts of generosity. The Christian Church disproved of anyone who showed too “intimate” an acquaintance with the fairies, and they themselves did not like to be talked about (Berry 42). In Elizabethan times and also much later it as considered unwise to among the people to speak of the fairies by name (Trubshaw 4). Shakespeare makes it understood to his audience that the fairies do their duties and mischief in secrecy –hidden from the naked eye. ...
While Shakespeare carried many characteristics of fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he also kept some of the more common names.
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