The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyen;

Nor all the gods beside

Longer dare abide

Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:

Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,

Can in His swaddling bands control the damnèd crew.

So, when the sun in bed

Curtained with cloudy red

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The flocking shadows pale

Troop to the infernal jail,

Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave:

And the yellow-skirted fays

Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.

But see! the Virgin blest

Hath laid her Babe to rest;

Time is, our tedious song should here have ending:

Heaven's youngest teemèd star

Hath fixed her polished car,

Her sleeping Lord with hand-maid lamp attending:
And all about the courtly stable

Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable.

John Milton [1608-1674]

FAIRYLAND

THE FAIRY BOOK

IN summer, when the grass is thick, if mother has the time, She shows me with her pencil how a poet makes a rhyme, And often she is sweet enough to choose a leafy nook, Where I cuddle up so closely when she reads the Fairybook.

In winter, when the corn's asleep, and birds are not in

song,

And crocuses and violets have been away too long,

Dear mother puts her thimble by in answer to my look, And I cuddle up so closely when she reads the Fairybook.

And mother tells the servants that of course they must contrive

To manage all the household things from four till half

past five,

For we really cannot suffer interruption from the cook, When we cuddle close together with the happy Fairy.. book.

Norman Gale [1862

FAIRY SONGS

I

From "A Midsummer-Night's Dream"

OVER hill, over dale,

Through bush, through brier,

Over park, over pale,

Through flood, through fire,

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moonè's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favors,

In those freckles live their savors:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

II

From "A Midsummer-Night's Dream"

You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen.

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby!

Never harm,

Nor spell nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

Weaving spiders, come not here;

Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near;

Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby!

Never harm,

Nor spell nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good-night, with lullaby.

Queen Mab

225

III

From "The Tempest"

COME unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands:

Court'sied when you have, and kissed,—

The wild waves whist,—

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.

Hark, hark!

Bow, wow,

The watch-dogs bark:

Bow, wow.

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow!

IV

From "The Tempest"

WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily:

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. William Shakespeare [1564-1616]

QUEEN MAB

From "The Satyr"

THIS is Mab, the Mistress-Fairy,
That doth nightly rob the dairy
And can hurt or help the churning,
As she please without discerning.

She that pinches country wenches
If they rub not clean their benches,

And with sharper pails remembers
When they rake not up their embers:
But if so they chance to feast her,
In a shoe she drops a tester.

This is she that empties cradles,
Takes out children, puts in ladles:
Trains forth old wives in their slumber
With a sieve the holes to number;

And then leads them from her burrows,
Home through ponds and water-furrows.

She can start our Franklins' daughters,
In their sleep, with shrieks and laughters:
And on sweet Saint Anna's night
Feed them with a promised sight,

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

Ben Jonson [1573?-1637]

THE PALACE OF THE FAIRIES

From "Nymphidia”

THIS palace standeth in the air,

By necromancy placed there,

That it no tempest needs to fear,

Which way soe'er it blow it.

And somewhat southward toward the noon,
Whence lies a way up to the moon,
And thence the fairy can as soon
Pass to the earth below it.

The walls of spiders' legs are made
Well mortised and finely laid;
He was the master of his trade,

It curiously that builded;
The windows of the eyes of cats,
And for the roof, instead of slats,
Is covered with the skins of bats,

With moonshine that are gilded.

Michael Drayton [1563-1631]