40
ON FAIRIES.
Their employment is thus charmingly represented by Shakspeare, in the address of Prospero:
"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves,And ye, that on the sands, with printless foot,Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly himWhen he comes back; you demy-puppets, thatBy moon-shine do the green-sour ringlets make,[1]Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastimeIs to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoiceTo hear the solemn curfew"
In The midsummer nights dream, the queen, Titania, being desirous to take a nap, says to her female attendants:
"Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;Then, for the third part of a minute hence:Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rosebuds;Some, war with rear-mice, for their leathern wings,To make my small elves coats; and some, keep backThe clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders,At our quaint spirits[2]: Sing me now asleep;Then to your offices, and let me rest."
Milton gives a most beautiful and accurate description of the little green-coats of his native soil, than which nothing can be more happily or justly expressed he had certainly seen them, in this situation, with "the poets eye:"
- ↑ Thus, also, in The merry wives of windsor:
"You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night."
- ↑ Sports.
