mortals, steal babies and leave changelings, and usurp the function of
Hymen in blessing the marriage-bed. Oberon, "king of shadows," can
apparently see things hidden from Puck.[90]

Titania, "a spirit of no common rate," is yet subject to passion and
jealousy, and had a mortal friend, "a votaress of my order."[91]

The fairy of folk-lore in Shakespeare's day is nearly everything that the
fairies of _A Midsummer-Night's Dream_ are; we may possibly except their
exiguity, their relations in love with mortals, and their hymeneal
functions. His conception of their size as infinitesimal at least differs
from that of the popular stories, where (as far as can be ascertained) they
are shown to be about the size of mortal children.

We may conclude these remarks with the modern Irish-Catholic theory of the
origin of the fairies:--

"When Lucifer saw himself in the glass, he thought himself equal with
God. Then the Lord threw him out of Heaven, and all the angels that
belonged to him. While He was 'chucking them out,' an archangel asked
Him to spare some of them, and those that were falling are in the air
still, and have power to wreck ships, and to work evil in the
world."[92]

* * * *

OBERON'S VISION.

_A Midsummer-Night's Dream_, like too many other plays of Shakespeare, has
been unable to escape the inquisition of "deuteroscopists"--those who are