ON FAIRIES.
31
That plats the manes of horses in the night;And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes."[1]
Ben Jonson, in his "Entertainment of the queen and prince at Althrope," in 1603, describes to come "tripping up the lawn a bevy of fairies attending on Mab their queen, who falling into an artificial ring that was there cut in the path, began to dance around."[2]
In the same masque the queen is thus characterised by a satyr:
"This is Mab, the mistress fairy,That doth nightly rob the dairy,And can hurt or help the churning,(As she please) without discerning. She that pinches country-wenches,If they rub not clean their benches,[3]And with sharper nails remembersWhen they rake not up their embers;
- ↑ Romeo and Juliet.
- ↑ Works, V, 201.
- ↑ Thus, too, Shakspeare, in The M. W. of W.
"Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap:Where fires thou find'st unraked, and hearths unswept,There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry:Our radiant queen hates sluts, and sluttery."
