THE FAIRIES FEAST
... Awn.Who feasts tonight?
Some Elves.Prince Olbin is truth-plight
To Rosalind, daughter of the Faery Queen.
Other Elves.She's a mannikin changeling; her name shows it.
Other Elves.We have heard tell; that she as dream is fair.
Awn.I've heard old Paigle say, fays gave for her
To humans, in the cradle, Moonsheen bright.
Other Elves.And Eglantine should wedded be this night,
To Ivytwine, in the laughing full moon.
Moth.I was there and saw it: on hoar roots,
All gnarled and knotty, of an antique oak, ...
Crowned, some with plighted frets of violets sweet;
Other, with flower-cups many-hewed, had dight
Their locks of gold; the gentle faeries sate:
All in their watchet cloaks: were dainty mats
Spread under them, of dwarve-wives rushen work:
And primroses were strewed before their feet.
They at banquet sate, from dim of afternoon ...
(Enter more elves running.)
One of the new-come Elves.O Awn, O Howt!
Not past a league from hence, lies close-cropped plot,
Where purple milkworts blow, which conies haunt,
Amidst the windy heath. We saw gnomes dance
There; that not bigger been than harvest mice.
Some of their heads were deckt, as seemed to us,
With moonbeams bright: and those tonight hold feast:
Though in them there none utterance is of speech.
Awn.Be those our mothers' cousins, dainty of grace:
But seld now, in a moonlight, are they seen.
They live not longer than do humble been.
Elves.We saw of living herb, intressed with moss,
Their small wrought cabins open on the grass.
Awn.Other, in gossamer bowers, wonne underclod.
Elves.And each gnome held in hand a looking glass;
Wherein he keeked, and kissed oft the Moons face.
Awn.Are they a faery offspring, without sex,
Of the stars' rays.
Elves.They'd wings on their flit feet;
That seemed, in their oft shining, glancing drops
Of rain, which beat on bosom of the grass:
Wherein be some congealed as adamant.
We stooped to gaze (a neighbour tussock hidus,)
On sight so fair: their beauty being such,
That seemed us it all living thought did pass.
Yet were we spied! for looked down full upon us,
Disclosing then murk skies, Moons clear still face.
In that they shrunk back, and clapped tó their doors....
Charles M. Doughty
