THE WELSH PUCK.
Herrick confirms what we have just heard:
If ye will with Mab find grace,
Set each platter in its place;
Rake the fire up, and get
Water in ere the sun be set;
Wash your pails, and cleanse your dairies;
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies!
Sweep your house: who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe.
John Lyly, in his very beautiful Mayde's Metamorphosis has this charming fairy song, which takes us out to the grass, and the soft night air, and the softer starshine:
By the moon we sport and play;
With the night begins our day;
As we dance, the dew doth fall.
Trip it, little urchins all!
Lightly as the little bee,
Two by two, and three by three,
And about go we, and about go we.
A MERRY NIGHT-WANDERER.
What a picture of the wee tribe at their revels! Here is another, from Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd: