It would seem that the fairies disliked irreligious people: and so, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), the mock fairies are said to chastise unchaste persons, and those who do not say their prayers. This coincides with what Lilly, in his "Life and Times," says: "Fairies love a strict diet and upright life; fervent prayers unto God conduce much to the assistance of those who are curious hereways," _i. e._, who wish to cultivate an acquaintance with them.
Again, fairies are generally represented as great lovers and patrons of cleanliness and propriety, for the observance of which they were frequently said to reward good servants, by dropping money into their shoes in the night; and, on the other hand, they were reported to punish most severely the sluts and slovenly, by pinching them black and blue.[35] Thus, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Puck says:
"I am sent, with broom, before, To sweep the dust behind the door."
[35] Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 483.
In "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), Pistol, speaking of the mock fairy queen, says:
"Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery;"
and the fairies who haunt the towers of Windsor are enjoined:
"About, about, Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out: Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room:
The several chairs of order look you scour With juice of balm and every precious flower."
In Ben Jonson's ballad of "Robin Goodfellow"[36] we have a further illustration of this notion:
"When house or hearth cloth sluttish lie, I pinch the maidens black and blue, The bed clothes from the bed pull I, And lay them naked all to view. 'Twixt sleep and wake I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw; If out they cry, Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh I, ho, ho, ho!"
[36] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Illustrations of Fairy Mythology," p. 167; see Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," pp. 122, 123.
In "Round About our Coal Fire," we find the following passage bearing on the subject: "When the master and mistress were laid on the pillows, the men and maids, if they had a game at romps, and blundered up stairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every one would swear 'twas the fairies, and that they heard them stamping up and down stairs all night, crying, 'Waters lock'd, waters lock'd!' when there was no water in every pail in the kitchen." Herrick, too, in his "Hesperides," speaks of this superstition: