by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
The Fairy Queen
Language: English
Come follow me, follow me, You fairy elves that be -- Which circle on the greene, Come follow Mab your Queene. Hand in hand let's dance around, For this place is fairy ground. When mortals are at rest, And snoring in their nest, Unheard and unespy'd Through key-holes we do glide; Over tables, stools, and shelves, We trip it with our fairy elves. And if the house be foul, With platter, dish, or bowl, Up stairs we nimbly creep, And find the sluts asleep: There we pinch their armes and thighes; None escapes, nor none espies But if the house be swept, And from uncleanness kept, We praise the household maid, And duly she is paid; For we use before we goe, To drop a tester in her shoe. Upon a mushroom's head Our table cloth we spread; A grain of rye or wheat Is manchet which we eat; Pearly drops of dew we drink In acorn cups fill'd to the brink. The brains of nightingales With unctuous fat of snails, Between two cockles stew'd Is meat that's easily chew'd; Tailes of wormes, and marrow of mice, Do make a dish that's wonderous nice. The grasshopper, gnat, and fly Serve for our minstrelsie; Grace said we dance awhile, And so the time beguile: And if the moone doth hide her head, The gloe-worm lights us home to bed On tops of dewie grasse So nimbly we do passe, The young and tender stalk Ne'er bends when we do walk; Yet in the morning may be seene Where we the night before have beene.
Confirmed with the anthology The Rhyme and Reason of Country Life, Or, Selections from Fields Old and New, ed. by Susan Fenimore Cooper, New York: G. P. Putnam & Co, 1855, pages 268-269.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "The Fairy Queen", written c1600 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "The Fairy Queen", published 1918 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Catherine Charlotte Maberly (1805 - 1875), "The Fairy Queen", published 1844?, from Songs, ballads, &c, no. 4, London : Cramer, Addison & Beale [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2023-09-23
Line count: 48
Word count: 263