Yt was to bringe .vii. worse than he;
And that is the cause there beyn now no fareys
In hallis, bowris, kechyns, ner deyris.'
For a general discussion of the legends about King Arthur, see the essay in vol. i. (p. 401) of the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall. In Malory's Morte Arthure we have an example of a fairy in Arthur's sister, Morgan le Fay, who was 'put to scole in a nonnery; and ther she lerned so moche that she was a grete clerke of nygromancye'; bk. i. cap. 2.
860. elf-queen, Proserpine, according to Chaucer; see E. 2229; also B. 754, 1978, and the notes.
861. Hence the 'fairy-rings,' as Dryden tells us:—
'And where the jolly troop had led the round,
The grass unbidden rose, and mark'd the ground.'
On the subject of Fairies, see Keightley's Fairy Mythology, and similar works. Tyrwhitt notes that few old authors tell us so much about them as Gervase of Tilbury.
866. limitours, limiters; see A. 209, and the note; D. 1711; P. Plowman, B. v. 138, C. xxiii. 346; Massingberd, Eng. Reformation, p. 110.