ON FAIRIES.
53
rately printed; which passage, by the way he himself "being quoting," as he pretends " from memory," (though he is not willing to allow a similar apology to any one else, in the same case,) had already corrupted, "the better," in his own words, "to favour a position" that Maggy Lawder is an "old song."
Burton, speaking of fairies, says that "a bigger kind there is of them, called with Hobgoblins, and Robin Good-fellowes, that would in those superstitious times, grinde corne for a messe of milke, cut wood, or do any kind of drudgery worke." Afterward, of the dæmons that mislead men in the night, he says, "We commonly call them Pucks."[1]
Cartwright, in The ordinary, introduces Moth, repeating this curious charm:
"Saint Francis, and Saint Benedight,Blesse this house from wicked wight;From the night-mare, and the goblinThat is hight Good-fellow Robin;Keep it from all evil spirits,Fairies, weezels, rats, and ferrets: From curfew-time, To the next prime."[2]
