THE FAIRY QUEEN.
Come follow me, follow me,
You fairy elves that be—
Which circle on the greene,
Come follow Mab your Queene.
Hand in hand let’s dance around,
For this place is fairy ground.
When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest,
Unheard and unespy’d
Through key-holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our fairy elves.
And if the house be foul,
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Up stairs we nimbly creep,
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,
We praise the household maid,
And duly she is paid;
For we use before we goe,
To drop a tester in her shoe.
Upon a mushroom’s head
Our table-cloth we spread;
A grain of rye or wheat
Is manchet which we eat;
Pearly drops of dew we drink
In acorn cups fill’d to the brink.
The brains of nightingales,
With unctuous fat of snails,
Between two cockles stew’d,
Is meat that’s easily chew’d;
Tailes of wormes, and marrow of mice,
Do make a dish that’s wonderous nice.
The grasshopper, gnat, and fly
Serve for our minstrelsie;
Grace said, we dance awhile,
And so the time beguile:
And if the moone doth hide her head,
The gloe-worm lights us home to bed.
On tops of dewie grasse
So nimbly we do passe,
The young and tender stalk
Ne’er bends when we do walk;
Yet in the morning may be seene
Where we the night before have beene.
Anonymous, about the year 1600.