I do wander everywhere, In those freckles live their savors: II From "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen. Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby! Never harm, Nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; Weaving spiders, come not here; Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near; Worm nor snail, do no offence. Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby! Never harm, Nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; So, good-night, with lullaby. COME unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Court'sied when you have, and kissed,— The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. Hark, hark! Bow, wow, The watch-dogs bark: Bow, wow. Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer IV From "The Tempest" WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I: On the bat's back I do fly After summer merrily: Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. William Shakespeare [1564-1616] QUEEN MAB From "The Satyr" THIS is Mab, the Mistress-Fairy, She that pinches country wenches And with sharper nails remembers This is she that empties cradles, She can start our Franklins' daughters, Feed them with a promised sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers. Ben Jonson [1573?-1637] THE ELF AND THE DORMOUSE UNDER a toadstool crept a wee Elf, Out of the rain, to shelter himself. Under the toadstool sound asleep, Trembled the wee Elf, frightened, and yet To the next shelter-maybe a mile! Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two. Soon he was safe home, dry as could be. "Where is my toadstool?" loud he lamented. Fairy Song 235 "OH! WHERE DO FAIRIES HIDE THEIR HEADS?" OH! where do fairies hide their heads, And draughts of dew they cannot sip, Perhaps, in small, blue diving-bells Carousals they maintain; And cheer their little spirits thus, When they return, there will be mirth And music in the air. And fairy wings upon the earth, And mischief everywhere. Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839] FAIRY SONG From "Amyntas" WE the Fairies, blithe and antic, Of dimensions not gigantic, Though the moonshine mostly keep us, Oft in orchards frisk and peep us. Stolen sweets are always sweeter, When to bed the world is bobbing, Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling Translated by Leigh Hunt from the Latin of Thomas Randolph [1605-1635] DREAM SONG I COME from woods enchaunted, Starlit and pixey-haunted, Where 'twixt the bracken and the trees The goblins lie and take their ease By winter moods undaunted. There down the golden gravel The laughing rivers travel; Elves wake at nights and whisper low Their dreamings to unravel. Twisted and lank and hairy, With wanton eyes and wary, They stretch and chuckle in the wind, For one has found a mermaid kind, They know no melancholy, And gather sleep within the brake To deck a kingdom when they wake, And bless the dreamer's folly. Ah! would that I might follow The servants of Apollo! But it is sweet to heap the hours With quiet dreams and poppy-flowers, Down in the pixies' hollow. Richard Middleton (1.82-1911] |