And fro this worlds faeire
Hath taken her into companie."
Gower, Constance.
Mr. Bitson professes not to understand the meaning of faerie in this last passage. Mr. Biteon should, as Sir Hugh Evans says, have "prayed his pible petter;" where, among other things that might have been of service to him, he would have learned that "man walketh in a vain show," that "all is vanity," and that "the fashion of this world passeth away," and then he would have found no difficulty in comprehending the pious language of "moral Gower " in his allusion to the transitory and deceptive vanities of the world.
2. From the sense of illusion simply, the transition was easy to that of the land of illusions, the abode of the Faés, who produced them; and Faerie next came, to signify the country of the Fays. Analogy also was here aiding; for as a Nonnerie was a place inhabited by Nonnes, a Jewerie a place inhabited by Jews, so a Faerie was naturally a place inhabited by Fays. Its termination, too, corresponded with a usual one in the names of countries: Tartaric, for instance, and "the regne of Feminie."
Hath taken my lord in fight,
And hath him led with him away
Into the Faerie, sir, parmafay."
Sir Guy,
Huon de Bordeaux
Though he were come agen out of faerie.."
Squier's Tale.
With sceptre and pall, and his regalty
Shall resort, as lord and sovereigne.
Out of Faerie, and reign in Bretaine,
And repair again that ould round table."
Lydgate, Fall of Princes, B. 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. [Here, too, there is perhaps an analogy with cavalry, infantry, squiere, and similar collective terms.]
K. James, Demonologie, L 3.
Proserpina, and alle her faerie,
Disporten hem, and maken melodie
About that well."
Marchante's Tale.
This is, perhaps, the proper sense of the word in all the remaining places in Chaucer
