sb. (a.) arch. [A variant of FAIRY; it prob. existed in ME. (cf. OF. faerie), but its first known appearance is as employed arch. by Spenser (usually as trisyllable). In present usage, it is practically a distinct word, adopted either to express Spenser’s peculiar modification of the sense, or to exclude various unpoetical or undignified associations connected with the current form fairy.]

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  I.  The realm or world of the fays or fairies; fairyland, fairydom (cf. FAIRY sb. 1). Usually, the imaginary world depicted in Spenser’s Faery Queene, the personages of which have little or no resemblance to the ‘fairies’ of popular belief.

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1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II., Introduction. i.

        Since none that breatheth living aire does know
Where is that happy land of Faëry.

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1818.  Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, Dedication, i. As to his Queen some victor Knight of Faëry.

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1835.  Willis, Pencillings (1836), II. xlix. 80. The enclosing hills with a grass so verdant and silken that it seems the very floor of faëry.

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1870.  Morris, The Earthly Paradise, I. II. 554.

        Because men dreaded there to see
The uncouth things of faërie.

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  † 2.  = FAIRY sb. 2. Obs.

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1612.  Drayton, Poly-olbion, iv. 307. The feasts that vnderground the Faërie did him make.

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  † 3.  = FAIRY sb. 4. Obs.

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1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 15.

        Yet the stout Faerie mongst the middest crowd
Thought all their glorie vaine in knightly vew.
    Ibid. (1591), Tears of Muses, 31.
The … light-foote Faeries.

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1634.  Milton, Comus, 436.

        No goblin or swart faery of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o’er true virginity.

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  4.  attrib. passing into adj. (never in predicative use), with sense: Of or belonging to ‘faerie,’ resembling fairyland, beautiful and unsubstantial, visionary, unreal. Also Comb., as faery-land, -tale; faery-fair, -frail adjs.

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1590.  Spenser (title), The Faerie Queene.

            Ibid., I. Introduction, ii.
Lay forth out of thine euerlasting scryne
The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still,
Of Faerie knights and fairest Tanaquill.
    Ibid., II. Introduction, iv.
Of Faery lond yet if he more inquyre
By certein signes here set in sundry place
He may it find.

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1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. vi. 20.

        To night at Hernes-Oke, just ’twixt twelve and one,
Must my sweet Nan present the Faene-Queene.

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1652.  Brome, Joviall Crew, IV. Wks. 1873, III. 417. ’Tis as fortunate a House for Servants, as ever was built upon Faery-Ground.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 781.

                        Faerie Elves
Whose Midnight Revels … some belated Peasant sees.

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1804.  Wordsworth, To the Cuckoo, viii.

        O blessed Bird! the Earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place.

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1820.  Keats, Eve St. Agnes, viii.

          ’Mid looks of love, defiance, hate, and scorn,
  Hoodwink’d with faery fancy; all amort,
  Save to St. Agnes and her lambs unshorn,
And all the bliss to be before to-morrow morn.

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1839.  Hallam, Hist. Lit., V. II. § 89. Those who seek the delight that mere fiction presents to the mind (and they are the great majority of readers) have been supplied to the utmost limit of their craving, by stores accommodated to every temper, and far more stimulant than the legends of Faeryland.

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1868.  Ld. Houghton, Select. fr. Wks., The Illuminations of St. Peter’s, 174.

        And made so faery-frail, so faery-fair:
The lineaments that thou art wont to wear
Augustly traced in ponderous masonry,
Lie faint as in a woof of filmy air.

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1890.  R. Bridges, Shorter Poems, III. v.

        To taste the faery cheer
Of spirits in a dream.

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