Fairy Tales, Now First Collected/Song 4

by Joseph Ritson

SONG IV.

QUEEN MABS INVITATION.

   Come follow, follow me,   Ye fairy elves that be   Light tripping o'er the green,   Come follow Mab your queen:Hand in hand we'll dance around,For this place is fairy-ground.

   When mortals are at rest,   And snoring in their nest,   Unheard and unespied,   Through key-holes we do glide;Over tables, stools, and shelves,We trip it with our fairy elves.

   And if the house be foul,   With platter, dish, or bowl,   Up stairs we nimbly creep,   And find the sluts asleep; Then we pinch their arms and thighs;None us hears, and none us spies.

   But if the house be swept,   And from uncleanness kept,   We praise the household maid,   And duly she is paid:Every night before we go,We drop a tester in her shoe.

   Then o'er a mushrooms head   Our table-cloth we spread;   A grain of rye or wheat   The diet that we eatPearly drops of dew we drink,In acorn cups fill'd to the brink.

   The grasshopper, gnat, and fly,   Serve for our minstrelsy;   Grace said, we dance awhile,   And so the time beguile:And, if the moon doth hide her head,The glow-worm lights us home to bed.

   O'er tops of dewy grass   So nimbly we do pass,    The young and tender stalk   Ne'er bends where we do walk;Yet in the morning may be seenWhere we the night before have been.