Fairy Tales, Now First Collected/Tale 7
TALE VII.
THE SHEPHERDS DREAM.
A shepheard, whilst his flock did feede, him in his cloke did wrap,Bids Patch his dog stand sentenell, both to secure a nap,And, lest his bagpipe, sheephooke, skrip, and bottell (most his wealth)By vagrants (more then, many now) might suffer of their stealth.As he twixt sleepe and waking lay, against a greene banks side,A round of Fairie-elves, and Larrs of other kind, he spide:Who, in their dancing, him so charm'd, that though he wakt he slept,Now pincht they him, antickt about, and on, and off him lept.Mongst them, of bigger bulke and voyce, a bare-breecht goblin was, That at their gamboles laughed, like the braying of an asse.At once the shepherds bagpipe (for they also used it.)Was husht, and round about him they, as if in councell, sit.Upon whose face the breechlesse Larr did set his buttocks bare,Bespeaking thus his beau-compeers, like Caiphas in his chaire.Poore Robin Good-fellow, sweet elfs, much thanks you for this glee,Since last I came into this land, a raritie to see:When nunnes, monks, friers, and votaries, were here of every sort,We were accustomed, ye wot, to this and merrier sport.Wo worth (may our great Pan, and we his puples say) that frier,That by revealing Christ obscur'd to Christ did soules retire.For since great Pans great vicar on the earth was disobaidIn England, I, beyond the seas, a mal-content have staid. Whence, by a brute of pouder that. should blow to heaven or hellThe protestants, I hither came, where all I found too well:And in the catholick maine cause, small hope or rather none;No sooner, therefore was I come, but that I wisht me gone.Was then a merry world with us, when Mary wore the crowne,And holy-water-sprinkle was beleevd to put us downe,Ho, ho, ho, ho, needs must I laugh, such fooleries to name:And at my crummed mess of milke, each night, from maid or dameTo do their chares, as they supposd, when in their deadest sleepeI puld them out their beds, and made themselves their houses sweepe,How clatterd I amongst their pots and pans, as dreamed they!My hempen hampen sentence,[1] when some tender foole would lay Me shirt or slop, them greeved, for I then would go away.Yee fairies too made mothers, if weake faith, to sweare that yeInto their beds did foist your babes, and theirs exchang'd to be.When yee (that elvish manners did from elvish shapes observe)By pinching her, that beat that child, made child and mother swerve,This in that erd beliefe, That, not corrected, bad that grew.Thus yee, I, pope, and cloysterers, all in one teame then drew.But all things have gone crosse with us since here the gospell shind,Nor helps it aught that she that it unclowded is inshrind.[2]Well, though our Romish exorcists and regulars be outed,
No lesse hypocrisie mongst some their contraries is doubted:And may they so persever and so perish Robin prayes:But too too zealous people are too many cloy my wayes.For that this realme is in the right, Rome in the wrong for loore,I must confesse, though much is else as faultie as before.To farmers came I, that, at least, their lofe and cheese once freed,For all would eate, but found themselves the parings now to need:So do their landlords rack their rents: though in the mannor-placeScarce smoakt a chimney: yet did smoke perplex me in strange cace.I saw the chimneys cleerd of fire, where nerethelesse it smoktSo bitterly, as one not used to like, it might have chokt.But when I saw it did proceed from nostrels, and from throtesOf ladies, lords, and sillie groomes, not burning skins nor cotes, Great Belsabub, thought I, can all spit fier as well as thine?Or where am I? it cannot be under the torred line.My fellow Incubus (who heere still residence did keepe,Witnes so many dadlesse babes begot on girles asleepe)[3]Did put me by that feare, and said it was an Indian weede,'That feum'd away more wealth than would a many thousands feed.Freed of that feare, the novelty of cooches scath'd me so,As from their drifts and cluttering I knew not where to go.These also worke, quoth Incubus, to our availe, for why?They tend to idle pride, and to inhospitalitie.With that I, comforted, did then prepe into every one, And of mine old acquaintances spide many a countrie Jone,Whose fathers drove the dung-cart, though the daughters now will none.I knew when prelates, and the peeres had faire attendance on,By gentlemen and yeomandrie, but that faire world is gone:For most, like Jehu, hurrie with pedanties two or three,Yet all go downe the winde, save those that hospitalious bee.Great'st ladies with their women, on their palfries mounted faireRode through the streets, well waited on, their artless faces bare,Which now in coches scorne to be salued of the aire.I knew when men-judicial rode on sober mules, wherebyThey might of suters, these, and they, aske, answere, and replie.I knew when more was thriv'd abroad by war than now by peace,And English feard where they be frompt, since hostile tearmies did cease:But by occasion, all things are produced, be, decrease. Times were when practize also preacht, and well-said was well-done,When courtiers cleerd the old before they on the new would run.When no judiciall place was bought, lest justice might be sould,When quirts, nor quillets, overthrew, or long did causes hold,When lawyers more deservd their fees, and fatted lesse with gold.When to the fifteenth psalme, sometimes, had citizens recourse,When lords of farmers, farmers of the poore had more remorse.When Povertie had Patience more: when none, as some of late,Illiterate, ridiculous, might on the altar wate.When canons, rubrick, liturgie, and discipline throughoutOne shiftlesse practise had, not to indifferencie a flout.More than be convocations now, Diocessors were stout.Although in clarks pluralities were tolerated thenOf lemmens (livings should I say) are now of clargie-men. Pluralitie that huddle, have also their brace of wives:But all the better, all that while hells heer-imployment thrives.That thus and worse hold, and increase, sith Rome may not returne,Pray, fairies, graunt, infernals, that in fire of envie burne.I have, faire fairie-elfes, besides large catalogue of sinne,Observed in this land, in this short time I heere have bin,The which at my departure, when Elizabeth first raign'd,Were not in beeing, or were then religiously refraind.Howbeit, hence for Ireland at the least I must transfreat:Where Rome hath roome there riot I: somes faith is heere too great.Yet largelier than most statesmen know, heere could I sport long while,Insociable is not, ywis, for catholics this ile.Suppose the shepheard all this while to have a troubled sleepe:Well might he heare the preachment, by the pulpit could not peepe: Till merrie Robin, gerding out a scape or twaine, did rise,And, with the wind therof, might seeme, were cleerd the shepherds eyes:Who glad he was deliverd so of them, then vanisht cleene,Told some, I know not whom, what ye have heard was said and seene.[4]
- ↑ "Indeed," says Reginald Scot, "your grandams maides were woont to set a boll of milke before him [Incubus] and his cousine Robin Good-fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight: and you have also heard that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or good-wife of the house, having compassion on his nakednes, laid anie clothes for him, beesides his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith, what have we here?
Hemton hamten,Here will I never more tread nor stampen."Discoverie of witchcraft, p. 85.
- ↑ Queen Elizabeth.
- ↑ Gervase of Tilbury says "Vidimus quosdam dæmones tanto zelo mulieres amare, quod ad inaudita prorumpunt ludibria, et eum ad concubitum carum accedunt mirà mole eas opprimunt, nec ab aliis videntur." Otia imperialia, D. 1, c. 17.
- ↑ Warners Albions England, London, 1612, 8vo. chap. 91.