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low In the vast and frozen air, No shirt half so fine, so fair; A rich waistcoat they did bring, Made of the Trout-fly's gilded wing: At which his Elveship 'gan to fret The wearing it would make him sweat Even with its weight: he needs would wear A waistcoat made of downy hair New shaven off an Eunuch's chin, That pleased him well, 'twas wondrous thin. The outside of his doublet was Made of the four-leaved, true-loved grass, Changed into so fine a gloss, With the oil of crispy moss: It made a rainbow in the night Which gave a lustre passing light. On every seam there was a lace Drawn by the unctuous snail's slow pace, To which the finest, purest, silver thread Compared, did look like dull pale lead. His breeches of the Fleece was wrought, Which from Colchos Jason brought: Spun into so fine a yarn No mortal wight might it discern, Weaved by Arachne on her loom, Just before she had her doom. A rich Mantle he did wear, Made of tinsel gossamer. Beflowered over with a few Diamond stars of morning dew: Dyed crimson in a maiden's blush, Lined with humble-bees' lost plush. His cap was all of ladies' love, So wondrous light, that it did move If any humming gnat or fly Buzzed the air in passing by, About his neck a wreath of pearl, Dropped from the eyes of some poor girl, Pinched, because she had forgot To leave clean water in the pot." The next page is occupied by a woodcut, and then (pp. 5, misnumbered 4, and 6) comes the variation on Herrick's "Oberon's Feast":-- "A DESCRIPTION OF HIS DIET. "Now they, the Elves, within a trice, Prepared a feast less great than nice, Where you may imagine first, The Elves prepare to quench his thirst, In pure seed pearl of infant dew Brought and sweetened with a blue And pregnant violet; which done, His killing eyes begin to run Quite o'er the table, where he spies The horns of watered butterflies, Of which he eats, but with a little Neat cool allay of cuckoo's spittle. Next this the red-cap worm that's shut Within the concave of a nut. Moles' eyes he tastes, then adders' ears; To these for sauce the slain stags' tears, A bloated earwig, and the pith Of sugared rush he glads him with. Then he takes a little moth, Late fatted in
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