Which shall your understandings clear,
As plainly shall to you appear,

Those things from me that you shall hear,
Conceiving much the quicker.

"This Lethe water, you must know,

The memory destroyeth so,

That of our weal, or of our woe,

It all remembrance blotted,'

Of it nor can you ever think :

For they no sooner took this drink,
But nought into their brains could sink,
Of what had them besotted."

King Oberon forgotten had
That he for jealousy ran mad ;
But of his queen was wond'rous glad,
And ask'd how they came thither.2
Pigwiggen, likewise, doth forget
That he queen Mab had ever met,
Or that they were so hard beset,
When they were found together.

Nor neither of them both had thought,
That e'er they had each other sought,
Much less that they a combat fought,
But such a dream were loathing;

1 A similar artifice, though not so fully explained, occurs in

A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"And think no more of this night's accidents,

But as the fierce vexation of a dream."

'So Lysander, after his fairy adventures:—

"I cannot truly say how I came here."

Tom Thum had got a little sup,
And Tomalin scarce kiss'd the cup,
Yet had their brains so sure lock'd up,
That they remember'd nothing.

Queen Mab and her light maids the while
Amongst themselves do closely smile,

To see the king caught with this wile,
With one another jesting:

And to the fairy-court they went,
With mickle joy and merriment,

Which thing was done with good intent,
And thus I left them feasting.

XIV. A FAIRY WEDDING.

This is another piece by the same author, and is not so generally known as the Nymphidia. It is the eight nymphal of “The Muses Elizium, lately discovered by a new way over the Parnassus, &c., by Michael Drayton, esquire," 4to. Lond. 1630. The speakers are Mertilla, Claia, and

Cloris.

A nymph is married to a fay,
Great preparations for the day;
All rites of nuptials they recite you,
To the bridal and invite you.

Mert. But will our Tita wed this fay? Claia. Yea, and to-morrow is the day. Mert. But why should she bestow herself Upon this dwarfish fairy elf?

Claia. Why, by her smallness you may find That she is of the fairy kind,

And therefore apt to choose her make
Whence she did her beginning take.
Besides! he's deft and wondrous airy,
And of the noblest of the fairy!
Chiefe of the Crickets of much fame,
In fairy a most ancient name:
But to be brief, 'tis clearly done,
The pretty wench is woo'd and won.
Clor. If this be so, let us provide
The ornaments to fit our bride,
For they knowing she doth come
From us in Elizium,

Queen Mab will look she should be drest
In those attires we think our best;
Therefore some curious things let's give her,
Ere to her spouse we her deliver.

Mert. I'll have a jewel for her ear,
Which for my sake I'll have her wear;
'T shall be a dewdrop, and therein
Of Cupids I will have a twin,

Which struggling with their wings, shall break

The bubble, out of which shall leak

So sweet a liquor, as shall move

Each thing that smells to be in love.

Claia. Believe me, girl, this will be fine,

And to this pendant then take mine;

A cup in fashion of a fly,

Of the lynx's piercing eye,

Wherein there sticks a sunny ray,
Shot in through the clearest day;
Whose brightness Venus' self did move
Therein to put her drink of love,

Which for more strength she did distill,
The limbeck was a phoenix quill!
At this cup's delicious brink,
A fly approaching but to drink,

Like amber or some precious gum

It transparent doth become.

Cloris. For jewels for her ears she's sped,
But for a dressing for her head

I think for her I have a tire,
That all fairies shall admire ;
The yellows in the full-blown rose,
Which in the top it doth enclose,
Like drops of gold ore shall be hung
Upon her tresses, and among

Those scattered seeds, the eye to please,
The wings of the cantharides;

With some o' th' rainbow, that doth rail
Those moons in, in the peacock's tail;
Whose dainty colours, being mixt
With th'other beauties, and so fixt,
Her lovely tresses shall appear,

As though upon a flame they were !
And to be sure she shall be gay,

We'll take those feathers from the jay,

About her eyes in circlets set,

To be our Tita's coronet.

Mert. Then, dainty girls, I make no doubt,

But we shall neatly send her out;

But let's amongst ourselves agree

Of what her wedding gown shall be.

Claia. Of pansy,1 pink, and primrose leaves, Most curiously laid on in threaves,

And all embroidery to supply,

Powder'd with flowers of rosemary :

The original reads panfre, which is evidently a misprint.

A trail about the skirt shall run,
The silk-worm's finest, newly spun,
And every seam the nymphs shall sew
With th' smallest of the spinner's clue,
And having done their work, again
These to the church shall bear her train,
Which of our Tita we will make
Of the cast slough of a snake,
Which quivering as the wind doth blow,
The sun shall it like tinsel show.

Cloris. And being led to meet her mate,
To make sure that she want no state,
Moons from the peacock's tail we'll shred,
With feathers from the pheasant's head,
Mix'd with the plume of so high price,
The precious bird of Paradise ;
Which to make up, our nymphs shall ply
Into a curious canopy

Borne o'er her head, by our enquiry,

By elves, the fittest of the faery.

Mert. But all this while, we have forgot Her buskins, neighbours; have we not? Claia. We had, for those I'll fit her now;

They shall be of the lady-cow,

The dainty shell upon her back

Of crimson, strew'd with spots of black,
Which, as she holds a stately pace,

Her leg will wonderfully grace.

Cloris. But then for music of the best,

This must be thought on for the feast.

Mert. The nightingale, of birds most choice, To do her best shall strain her voice; And to this bird, to make a set, The mavis, merle, and robinet,