Span-long elves that dance about a pool,
With each a little changeling in her arms.
In what is thought to be Lyly's play, just mentioned, Mopso, Joculo, and Prisio have something in the way of a pun for each fairy they address:
Mop.: I pray you, what might I call you?
1st Fairy: My name is Penny.
Mop.: I am sorry I cannot purse you!
Pris.: I pray you, sir, what might I call you?
2nd Fairy: My name is Cricket.
(Mr. Keightley says that the Crickets were a family of great note in Fairyland: many poets celebrated them.)
Pris.: I would I were a chimney for your sake!
Joc.: I pray you, you pretty little fellow, what's your
name?
3rd Fairy: My name is Little Little Prick.
Joc.: Little Little Prick! O you are a dangerous fairy, and fright all the little wenches in the country out of their beds. I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of yours.
Drayton, again, gives us a list of tinkling elfin-ladies' names, which are pleasant to hear as the drip of an icicle:
Hop and Mop and Drop so clear,
Pip and Trip and Skip that were
To Mab their sovereign ever dear,
Her special maids-of-honor:
Pib and Tib and Pinck and Pin,
Tick and Quick, and Jil and Jin,
Tit and Nit, and Wap and Win,
The train that wait upon her!
"BY THE MOON WE SPORT AND PLAY."