[32] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 112.
Speaking of their dress, we are told that they constantly wore green vests, unless they had some reason for changing their attire. In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 4) they are spoken of as--
"Urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white."
"Fairies, black, grey, green, and white."
The fairies of the moors were often clad in heath-brown or lichen-dyed garments, whence the epithet of "Elfin-grey."[33]
[33] Ritson's "Fairy Mythology," 1878, pp. 26, 27.
The legends of most countries are unanimous in ascribing to the fairies an inordinate love of music; such harmonious sounds as those which Caliban depicts in "The Tempest" (iii. 2) being generally ascribed to them:
"The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again."
In the "Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 3), when Titania is desirous of taking a nap, she says to her attendants:
And further on (iii. 1) she tells Bottom:
"I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep."
The author of "Round About our Coal Fire"[34] tells us that "they had fine musick always among themselves, and danced in a moonshiny night, around, or in, a ring."
[34] Quoted by Brand, "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 481.
They were equally fond of dancing, and we are told how they meet--
"To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind;"
and in the "Maydes' Metamorphosis" of Lyly, the fairies, as they dance, sing:
"Round about, round about, in a fine ring a, Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a, Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a, All about, in and out, for our brave queen a," etc.
As Mr. Thoms says, in his "Three Notelets on Shakespeare" (1865, pp. 40, 41), "the writings of Shakespeare abound in graphic notices of these fairy revels, couched in the highest strains of poetry; and a comparison of these with some of the popular legends which the industry of Continental antiquaries has preserved will show us clearly that these delightful sketches of elfin enjoyment have been drawn by a hand as faithful as it is masterly."