The other dramas of Shakspeare present a few more characteristic traits of the Fairies, which should not be omitted.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planet strikes,
No fairy takes,[399] no witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is that time.
Hamlet, Act. i. sc. 1.
King Henry IV. wishes it could be proved,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And called mine—Percy, his—Plantagenet!
The old shepherd in the Winter's Tale, when he finds Perdita, exclaims,
It was told me, I should be rich, by the fairies: this is some changeling.
And when his son tells him it is gold that is within the "bearing-cloth," he says,
This is fairy-gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires nothing but secresy.[400]
In Cymbeline, the innocent Imogen commits herself to sleep with these words:—
To your protection I commit me, gods!
From fairies and the tempters of the night,
Guard me, beseech ye!