En effect, s'il me falloit retourner en _faerie_, je ne sçauroye ou prendre mon chemin.--_Ogier le Dannoys._
That Gawain with his oldè curtesie, Though he were come agen out of _faërie_. _Squier's Tale._
He (Arthur) is a king y-crowned in _Faërie_, With sceptre and pall, and with his regalty Shallè resort, as lord and sovereigne, Out of _Faerie_, and reignè in Bretaine, And repair again the ouldè Roundè Table. _Lydgate, Fall of Princes_, bk. viii. c. 24.
3. From the country the appellation passed to the inhabitants in their collective capacity, and the Faerie now signified the people of Fairy-land.[17]
Of the fourth kind of Spritis called the Phairie. _K. James, Demonologie_, 1. 3.
Full often time he, Pluto, and his quene Proserpina, and alle hir _faërie_, Disporten hem, and maken melodie About that well.--_Marchante's Tale._
The feasts that underground the _Faërie_ did him make, And there how he enjoyed the Lady of the Lake. _Drayton, Poly-Olb., Song IV._
4. Lastly, the word came to signify the individual denizen of Fairy-land, and was equally applied to the full-sized fairy knights and ladies of romance, and to the pygmy elves that haunt the woods and dells. At what precise period it got this its last, and subsequently most usual sense, we are unable to say positively; but it was probably posterior to Chaucer, in whom it never occurs, and certainly anterior to Spenser, to whom, however, it seems chiefly indebted for its future general currency.[18] It was employed during the sixteenth century[19] for the Fays of romance, and also, especially by translators, for the Elves, as corresponding to the Latin Nympha.
They believed that king Arthur was not dead, but carried awaie by the _Fairies_ into some pleasant place, where he should remaine for a time, and then returne again and reign in as great authority as ever. _Hollingshed_, bk. v. c. 14. Printed 1577.
Semicaper Pan Nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore nymphæ. _Ovid, Met._ xiv. 520.
The halfe-goate Pan that howre Possessed it, but heretofore it was the _Faries'_ bower. _Golding_, 1567.
Hæc nemora indigenæ fauni nymphæque tenebant, Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata. _Virgil, Æneis_, viii. 314.
With nymphis and faunis apoun every side, Qwhilk _Farefolkis_ or than _Elfis_ clepen we. _Gawin Dowglas._