18
ON FAIRIES.
Call'd Kottri, or Kibaldi; such as weePugs and Hob-goblins call. Their dwellings beeIn corners of old houses least frequented,Or beneath stacks of wood: and these convented,Make fearefull noise in buttries and in dairies;Robin Good-fellowes some, some call them fairies.In solitarie roomes these uprores keepe,And beat at dores to wake men from their sleepe;Seeming to force locks, be they ne're so strong,And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long.Pots, glasses, trenchers, dishes, pannés, and kettles,They will make dance about the shelves and settles,As if about the kitchen tost and cast,Yet in the morning nothing found misplac't."[1]
Milton, a prodigious reader of romance, has, likewise, given an apt idea of the ancient fays:
"Fairer than famed of old, or fabled sinceOf Fairy damsels met in forest wideBy knights of Logres, and of Liones,Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore."
These ladies, in fact, are by no means unfrequent in those fabulous, it must be confessed, but, at the same time, ingenious and entertaining histories; as, for instance, Melusine, or Merlusine, the heroine of a very ancient romance in French verse; and who was, occasionally, turned into a serpent[2]; Morgan-
