or the fair dame
Meroudys; and he took her by the hand, and they fared homewards.

In his own city he lodged awhile in poor quarters, and then went forth to
play his harp; and meeting his steward, who knew the harp but not his
master, told him he had found the harp ten winters ago, by the side of a
man eaten by lions. This evil news caused the steward to swoon, whereupon
King Orfeo revealed himself, and sent for dame Meroudys. She came in a
triumphant procession; there was mirth and melody; and they were
new-crowned king and queen. Harpers of Bretayne heard this tale and made
the lay and called it after the king

"That Orfeo hight, as men well wote; Good is the lay, sweet is the
note!"

The ballad which represents the debris of this romance has only been
recovered in a single text, from the memory of an old man in Unst,
Shetland, and it is incomplete in verse-form, though the reciter remembered
the gist of the story. This version of the ballad is further complicated by
the fact that the old man sang it to a refrain which appears to be Unst
pronunciation of Danish--a startling instance of phonetic tradition.

It is not, however, to be understood from this that it was impossible for
Shakespeare to have heard this ballad; English versions _may_ have been
current in his time. But even so, the ballad would add nothing to the
knowledge he might gain elsewhere; it is simply a short form of the romance
altered by tradition.[67]

There are half-a-dozen other English and Scottish ballads concerning
fairies, none of much importance touching our present theme. They may be
best studied in Child's collection, Nos. 35-41, where under _Tam Lin_ he
has put together the main features of fairy-lore revealed in traditional
ballads.[68] One or two such points may be noted here.

We have seen that Ogier saw the supernatural lady after plucking and eating
an apple from a tree. Thomas of Erceldoune, Launfal, and Meroudys, are
sleeping or lying beneath a tree when they see their various visitors. Tam
Lin in the ballad was taken by the fairies while sleeping under an apple
tree. Malory[69] tells us that Lancelot went to sleep about noon
(traditionally the dangerous hour) beneath an apple tree, and was bewitched
by Morgan le Fay. In modern Greek folk-lore, certain trees are said to be
dangerous to lie under at noon, as the sleeper may be taken by the nereids,
who correspond to our fairies.

At certain intervals--every seven years,