* * * *

THE FAIRY QUEEN

Come, follow, follow me,
You fairy elves that be,
Which circle on the green,
Come follow me your queen;
Hand in hand let's dance around,
For this place is fairy ground.

When mortals are at rest,
And snorting in their nest,
Unheard and unespied
Through keyholes we do glide:
Over tables, stools, and shelves.
We trip it with our fairy elves.

And if the house be foul,
Or platter, dish, or bowl,
Upstairs we nimbly creep
And find the sluts asleep;
There we pinch their arms and thighs;
None escapes nor none espies.

But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid
And surely she is paid;
For we do use, before we go,
To drop a tester in her shoe.

Upon a mushroom's head
Our table we do spread;
A corn of rye or wheat
Is manchet which we eat,
Pearly drops of dew we drink
In acorn cups filled to the brink.

The brains of nightingales
With unctuous dew of snails
Between two nutshells stewed
Is meat that's easily chewed;
And the beards of little mice
Do make a feast of wondrous price.

On tops of dewy grass
So nimbly do we pass,
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends when we do walk;
Yet in the morning may be seen
Where we the night before have been.

The grasshopper and fly
Serve for our minstrelsy.
Grace said, we dance awhile,
And so the time beguile;
And when the moon doth hide her head,
The glow-worm lights us home to bed.

From _The Mysteries of Love and
Eloquence_ (1658); with a preface
signed E[dward] P[hillips].

* * * * *

NYMPHIDIA:

THE COURT OF FAIRY

Old Chaucer doth of Topas tell,
Mad Rab'lais of Pantagruel,
A later third of Dowsabel,
With such poor trifles playing;
Others the like have laboured at,
Some of this thing and some of that,
And many of they know not what,
But that they must be saying.

Another sort there be, that will
Be talking of the Fairies still,
Nor never can they have their fill,
As they were wedded to them;
No tales of them their thirst can slake,
So much delight therein they take,
And some strange thing they fain would make,
Knew they th