5

10

30

8 WITCH.

The scrich-owles egges, and the feathers blacke,
The bloud of the frogge, and the bone in his backe,
I have been getting; and made of his skin

A purset, to keepe sir Cranion in.

9 WITCH.

And I ha' beene plucking (plants among)
Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongue,

35 Night-shade, moone-wort, libbards-bane;

And twise by the dogges was like to be tane.

10 WITCH.

I from the jawes of a gardiner's bitch

Did snatch these bones, and then leap'd the ditch:

Yet went I back to the house againe,

40 Kill'd the blacke cat, and here is the braine.

45

50

11 WITCH.

I went to the toad, breedes under the wall,
I charmed him out, and he came at my call;
I scratch'd out the eyes of the owle before,

I tore the batts wing: what would you have more?

DAME.

Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows,
Horned poppie, cypresse boughes,

[The 201] The fig-tree wild, that growes on tombes,
And juice, that from the larch-tree comes,

The basiliskes bloud, and the vipers skin:
And, now, our orgies let's begin.

XXIV.

ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW,

alias PUCKE, alias HOBGOBLIN, in the creed of ancient superstition, was a kind of merry sprite, whose character and atchievements are recorded in this ballad, and in those well-known lines of Milton's L'Allegro, which the antiquarian Peck supposes to be owing to it;

30

5

10

66

"Tells how the drudging GOBLIN Swet
To earn his cream-bowle duly set;
“When in one night, ere glimpse of morne,
"His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;
"Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
"And stretch'd out all the chimneys length,
"Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
"And crop-full out of doors he flings,
"Ere the first cock his matins rings."

The reader will observe that our simple ancestors had reduced all these whimsies to a kind of system, as regular, and perhaps more consistent, than many parts of classic mythology: a proof of the extensive influence and vast 15 antiquity of these superstitions. Mankind, and especially the common people, could not every where have been so unanimously agreed concerning these arbitrary nations (l. notions corr.), if they had not prevailed among them for many ages. Indeed, a learned friend in Wales, assures the 20 editor, that the existence of Fairies and Goblins is alluded to by the most ancient British Bards, who mention them under [various 202] various names, one of the most common of which signifies, "The spirits of the mountains." See also Preface to Song XXV.

This song (which Peck attributes to Ben Jonson, tho' it is not found among his works) is given from an ancient black letter copy in the British Museum (1. Museum). It seems to have been originally intended for some Masque. [Vgl. hiezu ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS in Vol. III. p. 346.]

ROM Oberon, in fairye land,

FR

The king of ghosts and shadowes there,
Mad Robin I, at his command,

Am sent to viewe the night-sports here.

5

What revell rout

Is kept about,

In every corner where I go,

I will o'ersee,

And merry bee,

And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho!

More swift than lightening can I flye
About this aery welkin soone,

10

15

20

And, in a minutes space, descrye

Each thing that's done belowe the moone.
There's not a hag

Or ghost shall wag,

Cry (l. Or cry corr.), ware Goblins! where I go;
But Robin I

Their feates will spy,

And send them home, with ho, ho, ho!

Whene'er such wanderers I meete,

As from their night-sports they trudge home; [With 203] With counterfeiting voice I greete And call them on, with me to roame

Thro' woods, thro' lakes,

Thro' bogs, thro' brakes;

5

10

25

Or else, unseene, with them I go,
All in the nicke,

15

To play some tricke,

30

And frolicke it, with ho, ho, ho!

Sometimes I meete them like a man;

35

40

45

50

Sometimes an ox; sometimes a hound;

And to a horse I turn me can;

To trip and trot about them round.
But if, to ride,

My backe they stride,

More swift than wind away

Ore hedge and lands,

Thro' pools and ponds,

20

I

go,

25

[Yet 204] Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wooll;
And while they sleepe, and take their ease,
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at mill

Their malt up still;

I dress their hemp, I spin their tow.
If any 'wake,

And would me take,

I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho!
When house or harth doth sluttish lye,
I pinch the maidens blacke and blue;
The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
And lay them naked all to view.
'Twixt sleepe and wake,

I do them take,

55

60

65

And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho!

70

When any need to borrowe ought,

We lend them what they do require;

And for the use demand we nought;

Our owne is all we do desire.

30

With pinchings, dreames, and ho, ho, ho!

80

95

When men do traps and engins set

In loop-holes, where the vermine creepe,
Who from their foldes and houses, get

Their duckes and geese, and lambes asleep:
I spy the gin,

And enter in,

And seeme a vermine taken so.

But when they there

Approach me neare,

100

I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and rills, in meadowes greene,
We nightly dance our hey-day guise;
And to our fairye king, and queene,

We chant our moon-light harmonies. 105 [When 260 (7. 206)] When larks 'gin sing, Away we fling;

110

115

120

And babes new-borne steal as we go,
An elfe in bed

We leave instead,

And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!

From hag-bred Merlins time have I
Thus nightly revell'd to and fro;
And for my pranks men call me by
The name of Robin Good-fellow.
Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
Who haunt the nightes,

The hags and goblins do me know;
And beldames old

My feates have told,

So Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho;

XXV.

THE FAIRY QUEEN.

We have here a short display of the popular belief concerning FAIRIES. It will afford entertainment to a contemplative mind to trace these whimsical opinions up to 35 their origin. Whoever considers, how early, how extensively,