Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.”

Nor do we forget Ariel’s song in The Tempest (Act v. Sc. 1)—

“Where the bee sucks, there lurk I;

In a cowslip’s bell I lie,

There I couch when owls do cry.”

Amongst the fairies, at least, the owl seems to have found friends, and is generally represented as a companion in their moonlight gambols:—

“This is the fairy land!—O, spite of spites!—

We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites.”

Comedy of Errors, Act ii. Sc. 2.