By which we note the fairies,
Were of the old profession;
Their songs were Ave Marie's;
Their dances were procession.
But now, alas! they all are dead,
Or gone beyond the seas;
Or farther for religion fled,
Or else they take their ease.
See "The Fairies Farewell," a lively little song, by the witty Bishop Corbet.
[206] Our author, to whom, now so far advanced in life, the recollection of some of his plays could not be altogether pleasant, is willing to seek an excuse for their licence in the debauchery of Charles and of his court. The attack of Collier had been too just to admit of its being denied; and our author, like other people, was content to make excuses where defence was impossible.
[207] Or Ganore, or Vanore, or Guenever, the wife of Arthur in romance.
[208] Ovid, indeed, tells the story in the Metamor. lib. xi. But how will the fair reader excuse Chaucer for converting the talkative male domestic of Midas into that king's wife?
[209] The sound which the bittern produces by suction among the roots of water plants, is provincially called bumping.
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.
Juvenal, Satire x.
[211] This passage is obviously introduced by the author, to apologize for the splendid establishment of the clergy of his own community. What follows, applies, as has been noticed, to the non-juring clergy, who lost their benefices for refusing the oath of allegiance to King William.