THE FAIRY QUEEN. Abroad amongst them then I go; And night by night I them affright, With pinchings, dreams, and ho, ho, ho! When lazie queans have nought to do But study how to cog and lye, To make debate and mischief too, "Twixt one another secretly, I marke their gloze, And it disclose To them whom they have wronged so. When I have done I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho! When men do traps and engines set In loope holes, where the vermine creepe, Who from their foldes and houses get Their duckes and geese, and lambes and sheepe, I spy the gin, And enter in, And seeme a vermin taken so; But when they there Approach me neare, I leap out laughing ho, ho, ho! By wells and rills, in meadowes green, We nightly dance our hey-day guise; And to our fairye kinge and queene We chaunt our moon-lighte minstrelsies. When larkes gin singe Away we flinge, And babes new-born steale as we go; And shoes in bed We leave instead, And wend us laughing ho, ho, ho! From hag-bred Merlin's time have I Thus nightly revelled to and fro; The hags and gobblins, do me know; My feates have told So vale, vale! Ho, ho, ho! ANONYMOUS. The Fairy Queen. COME, follow, follow meYou, fairy elves that be, Which circle on the green Come, follow Mab, your queen! When mortals are at rest, Through keyholes we do glide; And if the house be foul And find the sluts asleep; There we pinch their arms and thighs, None escapes, nor none espies. But if the house be swept, And from uncleanness kept, We praise the household maid, Upon a mushroom's head The brains of nightingales, The grasshopper, gnat, and fly, Serve us for our minstrelsy; Grace said, we dance a while, And so the time beguile; 577 And if the moon doth hide her head, The glow-worm lights us home to bed. The Fairies' Song. WE dance on hills above the wind, Sometimes we dance upon the shore, The thunder's noise is our delight, And lightnings make us day by night; About the moon we make a ring, But when we'd hunt away our cares, Thus, giddy grown, we make our beds, With thick, black clouds to rest our heads, And flood the earth with our dark showers, That did but sprinkle these our bowers. Thus, having done with orbs and sky, Next, turned to mites in cheese, forsooth, We frisk and dance, the devil and all. Song of the Fairy. OVER hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I must go seek some dewdrops here, LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI. Song of Fairies. WE the fairies, blithe and antic, Of dimensions not gigantic, Though the moonshine mostly keep us, Oft in orchards frisk and peep us. Stolen sweets are always sweeter; When to bed the world are bobbing, Translation of LEIGH HUNT. La Belle Dame sans Merci. OH what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done. I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever dew; And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too. I met a lady in the mead, Full beautiful, a fairy's child; Her hair was long, her foot was light, I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone: She looked at me as she did love, And made sweet moan. I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long; For sidelong would she bend, and sing A fairy song. She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna dew; And sure in language strange she said, "I love thee true." She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept, and sighed full sore; And there I shut her wild, wild eyes With kisses four. And there she lulled me asleep; And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dreamed On the cold hill's side. I saw pale kings and princes too Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried, "La belle dame sans merci Hath thee in thrall!" I saw their starved lips in the gloam, 579 BONNY Kilmeny gaed up the glen; But it wasna to meet Duneira's men, Nor the rosy monk of the isle to see, For Kilmeny was pure as pure could be. It was only to hear the yorlin sing, And pu' the cress-flower round the spring— The scarlet hypp, and the hind berry, And the nut that hung frae the hazel-tree; For Kilmeny was pure as pure could be. But lang may her minny look o'er the wa', And lang may she seek i' the greenwood shaw; Lang the laird of Duneira blame, And lang, lang greet or Kilmeny come hame. When many a day had come and fled, When grief grew calm, and hope was dead, And Kilmeny had seen what she could not de- I have brought her away frae the snares of men, clare; Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew, But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung, In yon green wood there is a waik, And in that wene there is a maike, In that green wene, Kilmeny lay, Her bosom happed wi' the flowerets gay; That sin or death she may never ken." They clasped her waist and her hands sae fair; Many a lang year through the world we've gane, For it's they who nurice the immortal mind. By lily bower and silken bed The viewless tears have o'er them shed; Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep, Or left the couch of love to weep. We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come, And the angels will weep at the day of doom! Of the times that are now, and the times that shall | And they seated her high on a purple sward, be." They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away, And she walked in the light of a sunless day. The sky was a dome of crystal bright, The fountain of vision, and fountain of light; The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, And the flowers of everlasting blow. Then deep in the stream her body they laid, That her youth and beauty never might fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie In the stream of life that wandered by. And she heard a song- she heard it sung, She kend not where; but sae sweetly it rung, It fell on her ear like a dream of the morn"Oh! blest be the day Kilmeny was born! Now shall the land of the spirits see, Now shall it ken, what a woman may be! The sun that shines on the world sae bright, A borrowed gleid frae the fountain of light; And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun, Like a gouden bow, or a beamless sun Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair; And the angels shall miss them, travelling the air, But lang, lang after baith night and day, When the sun and the world have dyed away, When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom, Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!" They bore her away, she wist not how, For she felt not arm nor rest below; And bade her heed what she saw and heard, She saw a sun on a summer sky, And clouds of amber sailing by; A lovely land beneath her lay, 581 And that land had glens and mountains gray; Kilmeny sighed and seemed to grieve, For she found her heart to that land did cleave; |