Fairies, Fractious Women, and the Old Faith: Fairy Lore in Early Modern British Drama and Culture

Buccola (English, Roosevelt U., Chicago) seeks to recover early modern fairy lore, which from then until now has been too feminine to be of academic interest. She looks at the fairy feminism of A Midsummer Night's Dream, fairy honest knaveries in The Merry Wives of Windsor, fairyland meets the fifth monarchy in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, social role transgressions and gender transformation in Cymbeline, and the fairy defense in witchcraft trials. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)