FOOTNOTES:
[416] [Ver. 61. this begins the second part in the Roxburghe copy.]
[417] [gills=rivulets, Roxb. copy.]
[418] Endymion, 1591, and in Wm. Bulleyn's Dialogue, 1564, where the minstrel daunces "Trenchmore" and "Heie de gie."—Chappell.]
XXV.
THE FAIRY QUEEN.
We have here a short display of the popular belief concerning Fairies. It will afford entertainment to a contemplative mind to trace these whimsical opinions up to their origin. Whoever considers, how early, how extensively, and how uniformly, they have prevailed in these nations, will not readily assent to the hypothesis of those, who fetch them from the east so late as the time of the Croisades. Whereas it is well known that our Saxon ancestors, long before they left their German forests, believed the existence of a kind of diminutive demons, or middle species between men and spirits, whom they called Duergar or Dwarfs, and to whom they attributed many wonderful performances, far exceeding human art. Vid. Hervarer Saga Olaj Verelj. 1675. Hickes' Thesaur., &c.
This Song is given (with some corrections by another copy) from a book intitled, The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, &c. Lond. 1658, 8vo.
[Dr. Rimbault points out that this song occurs in a rare tract published more than twenty years before the book mentioned above. It is entitled, A description of the King and Queen of the Fayries, their habit, fare, abode, pomp and state, being very delightful to the sense and full of mirth. London, 1635. The song was to be sung to the tune of the Spanish Gypsie, which began—
"O follow, follow me
For we be gypsies three."
Martin Parker wrote a sort of parody called The three merry Cobblers, commencing—
"Come follow, follow me
To the alehouse we'll march all three;
Leave awl, last, thread and leather,
And let's go all together."
Mr. Chappell prints the first, eighth, fourteenth and last stanzas (Popular Music, vol. i. p. 272.)]
Come, follow, follow me,
You, fairy elves that be:
Which circle on the greene,
Come follow Mab your queene.
Hand in hand let's dance around, 5
For this place is fairye ground.
When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest;
Unheard, and un-espy'd,
Through key-holes we do glide; 10
Over tables, stools, and shelves.
We trip it with our fairy elves.
And, if the house be foul[419]
With platter, dish or bowl,
Up stairs we nimbly creep, 15
And find the sluts asleep:
There we pinch their armes and thighes;
None escapes, nor none espies.
But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept, 20
We praise the household maid,
And duely she is paid:
For we use before we goe
To drop a tester[420] in her shoe.
Upon a mushroomes head 25
Our table-cloth we spread;
A grain of rye, or wheat,
Is manchet,[421] which we eat;
Pearly drops of dew we drink
In acorn cups fill'd to the brink. 30
The brains of nightingales,
With unctuous fat of snailes,
Between two cockles stew'd,
Is meat that's easily chew'd;
Tailes of wormes, and marrow of mice 35
Do make a dish, that's wonderous nice.
The grashopper, gnat, and fly,
Serve for our minstrelsie;
Grace said, we dance a while,
And so the time beguile; 40
And if the moon doth hide her head,
The gloe-worm lights us home to bed.
On tops of dewie grasse
So nimbly do we passe,
The young and tender stalk 45
Ne'er bends when we do walk:
Yet in the morning may be seen
Where we the night before have been.