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XXV.

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 their origin. Whoever considers, how early, how extensively, and how uniformly, they have prevailed in these nations, will not readily assent to the hypothesis of those who fetch them from the East so late as the time of the Croisades. Whereas it is well known that our Saxon ancestors, long before they left their German forests, believed the existence of a kind of diminutive demons, or middle species between men and spirits, whom they called Duergar or Dwarfs, and to whom they attributed many wonderful performances, far exceeding human art. Vid. Hervarer Saga Olaj Verelj. 1675. Hickes Thesaur. &c.

This Song is given (with some corrections by another copy) from a book intitled "The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, &c." Lond. 1648. 8vo.

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 duely she is paid:
For we use before we goe
To drop a tester in her shoe.

Upon a mushroomes 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 snailes,
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 grashopper, gnat, and fly,

Serve for our minstrelsie;

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The gloe-worm lights us home to bed.

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XXVI.

This humorous old song fell from the hand of the witty Dr. Corbet (afterwards Bishop of Norwich, &c.) and is printed from his Poëtica Stromata, 1648, 12mo. (compared with the third edition of his poems, 1672.) It is there called "A proper new Ballad, entitled, The Fairies Farewell, or God-amercy Will, to be sung or whistled to the tune of The Meddow Brow, by the learned; by the unlearned, to the tune of Fortune."

The departure of Fairies is here attributed to the abolition of monkery: Chaucer has, with equal humour, assigned a cause the very reverse, in his "Wife of Bath's Tale."

"In olde dayes of the King Artour,

Of which that Bretons speken gret honour,

All was this lond fulfilled of faerie;
The elf-quene, with hire joly compagnie
Danced ful oft in many a grene mede.
This was the old opinion as I rede;
I speke of many hundred yeres ago,
But now can no man see non elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayeres
Of limitoures and other holy freres,
That serchen every land and every streme,
As thikke as motes in the sonne beme,
Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures,
Citees and burghes, castles high, and toures,
Thropes and bernes, shepenes and dairies,
This maketh that ther ben no faeries:
For ther as wont to walken was an elf,
Ther walketh now the limitour himself,

In undermeles and in morweninges,
And sayth his Matines and his holy thinges,
As he goth in his limitatioun.

Women may now go safely up and doun,
In every bush, and under every tree,
Ther is non other incubus but he,

And he ne will don hem no dishonour."
Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, I. p. 255.

Dr. Richard Corbet, having been bishop of Oxford about three years, and afterwards as long bishop of Norwich, died in 1635, ætat 52.

FAREWELL rewards and Fairies!

Good housewives now may say ;

For now foule sluts in dairies,

Doe fare as well as they:

And though they sweepe their hearths no less

Than mayds were wont to doe,

Yet who of late for cleaneliness

Finds sixe-pence in her shoe?

Lament, lament old Abbies,

The fairies lost command;

And all your children stoln from thence

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They did but change priests babies,

But some have chang'd your land:

Are now growne Puritanes,

Who live as changelings ever since,

After these songs on the fairies, the reader may be curious to see the manner in which they were formerly invoked and bound to human service. In Ashmole's collection of MSS. at Oxford [Num. 8259, 1406, 2,] are the papers of some Alchymist, which contain a variety of Incantations and Forms of Conjuring both Fairies, Witches, and Demons, principally, as it should seem, to assist him in his great work of transmuting metals. Most of them are too impious to be reprinted: but the two following may be very innocently laughed at.

Whoever looks into Ben Jonson's "Alchymist," will find that these impostors, among their other secrets, affected to have a power over Fairies: and that they were commonly expected to be seen in a christal glass appears from that extraordinary book, The Relation of Dr. John Dee's actions with Spirits, 1659," folio.

"An excellent way to gett a Fayrie. (For myself I call Margarett Barrance; but this will obteine any one that is not allready bownd.)

"First, gett a broad square christall or Venice glasse, in length and breadth three inches. Then lay that glasse or christall in the bloud of a white henne, three Wednesdayes, or three Fridayes. Then take it out, and wash it with holy aq. and fumigate it. Then take three hazle sticks, or wands of an yeare groth pill them fayre and white; and make them' soe longe, as you write the Spiritts name, or Fayries name, which you call, three times on every sticke being made flatt on one side. Then bury them under some hill, whereas you suppose Fayries haunt, the Wednesday before you call her : and the Friday followinge take them uppe, and call her at eight or three or ten of the clocke, which be good planetts and houres for that turne: but when you call, be in cleane life, and turne thy face towards the east. And when you have her, bind her to that stone or glasse." "An unguent to annoynt under the eyelids, and upor the eyelids eveninge and morninge: but especially when you call; or find your sight not perfect.

"R. A pint of sallet-oyle, and put it into a viall glasse: but first wash it with rose-water, and marygold-water the flowers 'to' be gathered towards the east. Wash it till the oyle come white; then put it into the glasse, ut supra: and then put thereto the budds of holyhocke, the flowers of marygold, the flowers or toppes of wild thime, the budds of young hazle and the thime must be gathered neare the side of a hill where Fayries use to be: and 'take' the grasse of a fayrie throne, there. All these put into the oyle, into the glasse: and set it to dissolve three dayes in the sunne, and then keep it for thy use; ut supra."

The incidents in this, and the other ballad of "St. George and the Dragon," are chiefly taken from the old story-book of the Seven Champions of Christendome; which, though now the plaything of children, was once in high repute. Bp. Hall, in his Satires, published in 1597, ranks

St. George's sorell, and his cross of blood," among the most popular stories of his time; and an ingenious critic thinks that Spencer himself did not disdain to borrow hints from it; though I much doubt whether this popular romance were written so carly as the Faery Queen.

The author of this book of the Seven Champions was one Richard Johnson, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, as we collect from his other publications; viz.-" The nine worthies of London: 1592," 4to." The pleasant walks of Moor fields: 1607," 4to." A crown garland of Goulden Roses, gathered, &c. 1612," 8vo.-" The life and death of Rob. Cecill, E. of Salisbury, 1612," 4to-" The Hist. of Tom of Lincoln," 4to. is also by R. J. who likewise reprinted" Don Flores of Greece," 4to.

The Seven Champions, though written in a wild inflated style, contains some strong Gothic painting; which seems for the most part, copied from the meAt least the story trical romances of former ages. of St. George and the fair Sabra is taken almost verbatim from the old poetical legend of "Sir Bevis of Hampton."

This very antique poem was in great fame in Chaucer's time [see above pag. 220.], and is so continued till the introduction of printing, when it ran through several editions, two of which are in black letter, 4to. “ imprinted by Wyllyam Copland," without date; containing great variations.

• Mr. Wharton. Vid. Observations on the Fairy Queen, 2 vol. 1762, 12mo. passim.

As a specimen of the poetic powers of this very old rhimist, and as a proof how closely the author of the Seven Champions has followed him, take a description of the dragon slain by Sir Bevis.

-Whan the dragon, that foule is,
Had a syght of Syr Bevis,

He cast up a loude cry,
As it had thondred in the sky;
He turned his bely towarde the son,
It was greater than any tonne :
His scales was bryghter then the glas,
And harder they were than any bras:
Betwene his shulder and his tayle,
Was forty fote withoute fayle.
He waltred out of his denne,
And Bevis pricked his stede then,
And to hym a spere he thraste
That all to shyvers he it braste:
The dragon then gan Bevis assayle,
And smote Syr Bevis with his tayle :
Then downe went horse and man,
And two rybbes of Bevis brused than.

After a long fight, at length, as the dragon was preparing to fly, Sir Bevis

"Hit him under the wynge,
As he was in his flyenge,

There he was tender without scale,
And Bevis thought to be his bale.
He smote after, as I you save,
With his good sword Morglaye.
Up to the hiltes Morglay yode
Through harte, lyver, bone, and bloude;
To the ground fell the dragon,
Great joye Syr Bevis begon.
Under the scales al on hight:
He smote off his head forth right,
And put it on a spere: &c."

Sign K. iv

Sir Bevis's dragon is evidently the parent of that in the Seven Champions, see Chap. III. viz. “The dragon no sooner had a sight of him [St. George] but he gave such a terrible peal, as though it had thundered in the elements... Betwixt his shoulders and his tail were fifty feet in distance, his scales glistering as bright as silver, but far more hard than brass; his belly of the colour of gold, but bigger than a tun. Thus weltered he from his den, &c. . . . The champion... gave the dragon such a thrust with his spear, that it shivered in a thousand pieces whereat the furious dragon so fiercely smote him with his venomous tail, that down fell man and horse: in which fall two of St. George's ribs were so bruised, &c.-At length. . . . . St. George smote the dragon under the wing where it was tender without scale, whereby his good sword Ascalon with an easie passage went to the very hilt through both the dragon's heart, liver, bone, and blood. Then St. George cut off the dragon's head, and pitcht it upon the truncheon of a spear, &c."

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The History of the Seven Champions, being written just before the decline of books of chivalry, was never, I believe, translated into any foreign language: but "Le Roman de Beuves of Hantonne" was published at Paris in 1502, 4to. Let. Gothique.

The learned Selden tells us, that about the time of the Norman invasion was Bevis famous with the title of Earl of Southampton, whose residence was at Duncton in Wiltshire: but he observes, that the monkish enlargements of his story have made his very existence doubted. See Notes on PolyOlbion, Song III.

This hath also been the case of St. George himself, whose martial history is allowed to be apocryphal. But, to prove that there really existed an orthodox Saint of this name (although little or nothing, it seems, is known of his genuine story) is the subject of" An Historical and Critical Inquiry into the Existence and Character of Saint George, &c. By the Rev. J. Milner, F.S.A. 1792, 8vo."

The Equestrian Figure worn by the Knights o the Garter, has been understood to be an emblem of the Christian warrior, in his spiritual armour, vanquishing the old serpent.

But on this subject the inquisitive reader may consult "A Dissertation on the Original of the Equestrian Figure of the George and of the Garter, ensigns of the most noble order of that name. Illustrated with copper-plates. By John Pettingal, A.M. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1753," 4to. This learned and curious work the author of the Historical and Critical Inquiry would have done well to have seen.

It cannot be denied, but that the following ballad is for the most part modern: for which reason it would have been thrown to the end of the volume, had not its subject procured it a place here.

LISTEN, lords, in bower and hall,
I sing the wonderous birth

Of brave St. George, whose valorous arm
Rid monsters from the earth:

Distressed ladies to relieve

He travell'd many a day;

In honour of the Christian faith, Which shall endure for aye.

In Coventry sometime did dweil
A knight of worthy fame,
High steward of this noble realme;
Lord Albert was his name.

He had to wife a princely dame,
Whose beauty did excell.
This virtuous lady, being with child,
In sudden sadness fell:

For thirty nights no sooner sleep Had clos'd her wakeful eyes, But, lo! a foul and fearful dream Her fancy would surprize:

She dreamt a dragon fierce and fell Conceiv'd within her womb; Whose mortal fangs her body rent Ere he to life could come.

All woe-begone, and sad was she;
She nourisht constant woe:
Yet strove to hide it from her lord,
Lest he should sorrow know.

In vain she strove; her tender lord,
Who watch'd her slightest look,
Discover'd soon her secret pain,
And soon that pain partook.

And when to him the fearful cause
She weeping did impart,
With kindest speech he strove to heal
The anguish of her heart.

Be comforted, my lady dear,
Those pearly drops refrain;
Betide me weal, betide me woe,
I'll try to ease thy pain.

And for this foul and fearful dream,
That causeth all thy woe,
Trust me I'll travel far away
But I'll the meaning knowe.

Then giving many a fond embrace,
And shedding many a teare,
To the weird lady of the woods,
He purpos'd to repaire.

To the weird lady of the woods,
Full long and many a day,
Thro' lonely shades and thickets rough
He winds his weary way.

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