The longaevi, the good people, the fairies, have figured in English literature
since Beowulf. In the seventeenth century a number of poets made use of
them, borrowing sometimes from Shakespeare and Spenser, sometimes from tradition
and contemporary folklore.
Occasionally used for mere ornamentation, the fairies far more often serve
as a vehicle for political statement. Spenser had equated Elizabeth with
Gloriana and England with Fairyland, imbuing both with supernatural glory,
and similar associations permeated Elizabeth's court. This practice continued
under the Stuarts in Jonson's Oberon, which proclaimed James I's son, Henry,
as Fairy Prince. Under Charles I, however, the metaphoric connection between
England and Fairyland was used primarily for satire. Drayton, strongly critical
of the supposed immorality of the Stuarts, uses a corrupt Fairyland to castigate
Charles' court in "Nimphidia" and The Muses Elizium. Earlier,
Corbett's "The Faeryes Farewell" had already used the longaevi
to criticize both Catholic corruption and Puritan radicalism. William Browne
and Herrick continue this tradition.
Rooted as they are in British history, the fairies also form a convenient
symbol for the past, the old ways and values, and appeal to a sense of notalgia.
This is their role in The Muses Elizium, their chaste sexuality contrasting
with Venus's lust, and in "King Oberon, and the Pygmees," the
Duchess of Newcastle's glorification of the martyred Charles I. In The
Faithful Shepherdess, Fletcher uses the fairies to domesticate the Italian
pastoral tragi-comedy. They are adapted to the same purpose by Randolph
in Amyntas and Jonson in The Sad Shepherd.
Shakespeare popularized small fairies and was imitated by Drayton, Browne,
Herrick, and others. Several poets use this diminutiveness for comic purposes.
By taking away a character's physical stature, they rob him of dignity and
make him a more obviously eligible satiric target. In such poems as "Oberon's
Feast," however, Herrick's presentation of the microcosmic world differs
from that of the other poets in its close and careful observation and use
of realistic detail. Indeed, the observer par excellence of small things,
Herrick more than any other poet describes what he actually sees in the
world of the tiny, and creates from these observations a veritable civilization
in miniature.
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