enlivened by the introduction of the merry goblin _Puck_,[A]
for whose freakish pranks they exchanged their original mischievous
propensities. The Fairies of Shakespeare, Drayton, and Mennis,
therefore, at first exquisite fancy portraits, may be considered as
having finally operated a change in the original which gave them
birth.[B]

[Footnote A: Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin, possesses the frolicksome
qualities of the French _Lutin_. For his full character, the reader is
referred to the _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_. The proper livery of this
sylvan Momus is to be found in an old play. "Enter Robin Goodfellow, in
a suit of leather, close to his body, his hands and face coloured russet
colour, with a flail."--_Grim, the Collier of Croydon, Act 4, Scene 1._
At other times, however, he is presented in the vernal livery of the
elves, his associates:

_Tim._ "I have made
"Some speeches, sir, ill verse, which have been spoke
"By a _green Robin Goodfellow_, from Cheapside conduit,
"To my father's company."
_The City Match, Act I, Scene 6._]

[Footnote B: The Fairy land, and Fairies of Spenser, have no connection
with popular superstition, being only words used to denote an Utopian
scene of action, and imaginary or allegorical characters; and the title
of the "Fairy Queen" being probably suggested by the elfin mistress of
Chaucer's _Sir Thopas_. The stealing of the Red Cross Knight, while a
child, is the only incident in the poem which approaches to the popular
character of the Fairy:

--A Fairy thee unweeting reft;
There as thou sleptst in tender swadling band,
And her base elfin brood there for thee left:
Such men do changelings call, so chang'd by Fairies theft.
_Book I. Canto_ 10.]

While the fays of South Britain received such attractive and poetical
embellishments, those of Scotland, who possessed no such advantage,
retained more of their ancient, and appropriate character. Perhaps,
also, the persecution which these sylvan deities underwent, at the
instance of the stricter presbyterian clergy, had its usual effect, in
hardening their dispositions, or at least in rendering them more dreaded
by those among whom they dwelt. The face of the country, too, might
have some effect; as we should naturally attribute a less malicious
disposition, and a less frightful appearance, to the fays who glide by
moon-light through the oaks of Windsor, than to those who haunt the
solitary heaths and loft