"The men in green all forsook England a hundred years ago," said I, speaking as seriously as he had done. "And not even in Hay Lane, or the fields about it, could you find a trace of them. I don't think either summer or harvest, or winter moon, will ever shine on their revels more."
Chapter 13 · Jane Eyre
Context
Rochester has jokingly suggested Jane might be a fairy or witch who caused his riding accident. Jane responds seriously, rejecting the fantasy and insisting that fairies no longer exist in England.
Analysis
Jane's deadpan refusal to play along—'speaking as seriously as he had done'—reverses the joke by taking it literally, a move that asserts control over the conversation's tone. The phrase 'will ever shine on their revels more' uses archaic, poetic diction ('revels') that matches Rochester's fairy-tale register, but her verb tense is bluntly final: fairies are gone for good. By meeting his whimsy with myth-deflating realism, Jane signals she won't accept the 'other-worldly' role he tried to assign her moments earlier.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Jane resists Romantic idealization throughout the novel—here she dismantles Rochester's attempt to cast her as a fairy-tale figure, insisting instead on inhabiting the real, disenchanted world where she can claim agency.