And thinking her to be dead, Guiderius declares,

If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed;
With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
And worms will not come to thee.

The Maydes Metamorphosis of Lylie was acted in 1600, the year the oldest edition we possess of the Midsummer Night's Dream was printed. In Act II. of this piece, Mopso, Joculo, and Frisio are on the stage, and "Enter the Fairies singing and dancing."

By the moon we sport and play,
With the night begins our day;
As we dance the dew doth fall-
Trip it, little urchins all,

Lightly as the little bee,

Two by two, and three by three;

And about go we, and about go we.

Jo. What mawmets are these?

Fris. O they be the faieries that haunt these woods.

Mop. O we shall be pinched most cruelly!

1st Fai. Will you have any music, sir?

2d Fai. Will you have any fine music?

3d Fai. Most dainty music?

Mop. We must set a face on it now; there is no flying.

No, sir, we very much thank you.

1st Fai. O but you shall, sir.

Fris. No, I pray you, save your labour.

2d Fai. O, sir! it shall not cost you a penny.

Jo. Where be your fiddles?

3d Fai. You shall have most dainty instruments, sir.

Mop. I pray you, what might I call you? 1st Fai. My name is Penny.

Mop. I am sorry I cannot purse you.

Fris. I pray you, sir, what might I call you?

2d Fai. My name is Cricket.

Fris. I would I were a chimney for your sake.

Jo. I pray you, you pretty little fellow, what's your name? 3d Fai. My name is little little Prick.

Jo. Little little Prick? O you are a dangerous faierie ! I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of yours. 1st Fai. I do come about the coppes,

Leaping upon flowers' toppes;
Then I get upon a fly,

She carries me about the sky,
And trip and go.

2d Fai. When a dew-drop falleth down,
And doth light upon my crown,
Then I shake my head and skip,
And about I trip.

3d Fai. When I feel a girl asleep,
Underneath her frock I peep,
There to sport, and there I play,
Then I bite her like a flea,
And about I skip.

They all dance in a ring and sing as followeth :

Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,

Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a;

Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,
All about, in and out, for our brave queen a.

Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a;
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,
All about, in and out, for our brave queen a.

We have danced round about, in a fine ring a,
We have danced lustily, and thus we sing a;
All about, in and out, over this green a,
To and fro, trip and go, to our brave queen a.

The next poet, in point of time, who employs the Fairies, is worthy, long-slandered, and maligned Ben Jonson. His beautiful entertainment of the "Satyr" was presented in 1603, to Anne, queen of James I. and prince Henry, at Althorpe, the seat of Lord Spenser, on their way from Edinburgh to London. As the queen and prince entered the park, a Satyr came forth from a “little spinet" or copse, and having gazed the "Queen and the Prince in the face" with admiration, again retired into the thicket; then “there came tripping up the lawn a bevy of Fairies attending on Mab, their queen, who, falling into an artificial ring, began to dance a round while their mistress spake as followeth :"

Mab. Hail and welcome, worthiest queen!

Joy had never perfect been,

To the nymphs that haunt this green,

Had they not this evening seen.

Now they print it on the ground
With their feet in figures round;
Marks that will be ever found

To remember this glad stound.

Satyr (peeping out of the bush).

Mab.

Sat.

Trust her not, you bonnibell,
She will forty leasings tell;
I do know her pranks right well.
Satyr, we must have a spell,
For your tongue it runs too fleet.
Not so nimbly as your feet,

When about the cream-bowls sweet

You and all your elves do meet.

(Here he came hopping forth, and mixing himself with the Fairies, skipped in, out, and about their circle, while they made many offers to catch him.)

1st Fai. Sat.

2d Fai.

Sat.

This is Mab, the mistress Fairy,
That doth nightly rob the dairy;
And can hurt or help the churning
As she please, without discerning.
Pug, you will anon take warning.
She that pinches country wenches,
If they rub not clean their benches,
And, with sharper nail, remembers
When they rake not up their embers ;
But if so they chance to feast her,
In a shoe she drops a tester.
Shall we strip the skipping jester ?
This is she that empties cradles,
Takes out children, puts in ladles;
Trains forth midwives in their slumber,
With a sieve the holes to number;

And then leads them from her burrows,

Home through ponds and water-furrows*.

* We do not recollect having met any account of this

1st Fai.

Sat.

Shall not all this mocking stir us?
She can start our Franklin's daughters
In her sleep with shouts and laughters;
And on sweet St. Anna's* night
Feed them with a promised sight,

Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers.

1st Fai. Satyr, vengeance near you hovers.

At length Mab is provoked, and she cries out,

Sat.

Fairies, pinch him black and blue.

Now you have him make him rue.
O hold, mistress Mab, I sue!

Mab, when about to retire, bestows a jewel on

the Queen, and concludes with,

Utter not, we you implore,

Who did give it, nor wherefore.

And whenever you restore

Yourself to us, you shall have more.
Highest, happiest queen, farewell,

But beware you do not tell.

The splendid " Masque of Oberon," presented in 1610, introduces the Fays in union with the Satyrs, Sylvans, and the rural deities of classic

prank; but Jonson is usually so correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the popular belief.

*

Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony is, we believe, still practised in the north of England on St. Agnes' night.