MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631)
These two excerpts are from Michael Drayton’s 1627 short epic poem, Nimphidia, concerned entirely with the jealousy of Fairy King Oberon over Queen Mab’s supposed infidelity with one “Pigwiggin.” This poet friend of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson is a worthy Elizabethan, and the spells and curses and descriptions of fairy coaches and weaponry in Nimphidia are a delight. Drayton also wrote long narrative poems on English history, and a multi-volume topographic work, Polyolbion, describing the landscape and historical landmarks of Britain. For these two excerpts from Nimphidia, I have modernized some spellings (mostly leaving verbs alone) and I have here and there made silent corrections for clarity in a few lines that did not make sense to today’s reader.
Blaming the Fairies
This Palace standeth in the Air,
By Necromancy placed there,
That it no Tempests needs to fear,
Which way so e’er it blow it.
And somewhat Southward tow’rd the Noon,
Whence lies a way up to the Moon,
And thence the Fayrie 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
Who curiously that built:
The Windows are the eyes of Cats,
And for the Roof, instead of Slats,
Is cover’d with the skins of Bats,
With Moonshine that are gilt.
Hence Oberon him sport to make,
(Their rest when weary mortals take)
And none but only Fayries wake,
Descendeth for his pleasure.
And Mab his merry Queen by night
Bestrides young Folks that lie upright, (1)
(In elder Times the Mare that hight) (2)
Which plagues them out of measure.
Hence Shadows, seeming Idle shapes,
Of little frisking Elves and Apes,
To Earth do make their wanton scapes,
As hope of pastime hastes them:
Which maids think on the Hearth they see,
When Fires well near consumed be,
Their dancing Hayes by two and three, (3)
Just as their Fancy casts them.
These make our Girls their sluttery rue,
By pinching them both black and blue,
And put a penny in their shoe,
The house for cleanly sweeping:
And in their courses make that Round,
In Meadows, and in Marshes found,
Of them so call’d the Fayrie ground,
Of which they have the keeping.
Thus when a Child haps to be got,
Which after proves an Idiot,
When Folk perceive it thriveth not,
The fault therein to smother:
Some silly doting brainless Calf,
That understands things by the half,
Say that the Fayrie left this Elfe.
In comes Nimphidia, and doth cry,
My Sovereign for your safety fly,
For there is danger but too nigh,
I posted to forewarn you:
The King hath sent Hobgoblin out, (4)
To seek you all the Fields about,
And of your safety you may doubt,
If he but once discern you.
When like an uproar in a Town,
Before them every thing went down,
Some tore a Ruff, and some a Gown,
’Gainst one another jostling:
They flew about like Chaff i’ the wind,
For haste some left their Masks behind;
Some could not stay their Gloves to find,
There never was such bustling.
Forth ran they by a secret way,
Into a brake that near them lay;
Yet much they doubted there to stay,
Lest Hob should hap to find them:
He had a sharp and piercing sight,
All one to him the day and night,
And therefore were resolved by flight,
To leave this place behind them.
At length one chanc’d to find a Nut,
In th’ end of which a hole was cut,
Which lay upon a Hazel root,
There scatt’red by a Squirrel:
Which out the kernel gotten had;
When quoth this Fay: dear Queen be glad,
Let Oberon be ne’er so mad,
I’ll set you safe from peril.
Come all into this Nut (quoth she)
Come closely in, be rul’d by me,
Each one may here a chooser be,
For room ye need not wrestle:
Nor need ye be together heaped;
So one by one therein they crept,
And lying down they soundly slept,
And safe as in a Castle.
Nimphidia that this while doth watch,
Perceiv’d if Puck the Queen should catch
That he should be her over-match,
Of which she well bethought her;
Found it must be some powerful Charm,
The Queen against him that must arm,
Or surely he would doe her harm,
For thoroughly he had sought her.
And listening if she aught could hear,
That her might hinder, or might fear:
But finding still the coast was clear,
Nor creature had descried her;
Each circumstance and having scanned,
She came thereby to understand,
Puck would be with them out of hand
When to her Charm she hid her:
And first her Fern seed doth bestow,
The kernel of the Mistletoe:
And here and there as Puck should go,
With terror to affright him:
She Night-shade strews to work him ill,
Therewith her Vervayne (5) and her Dill,
That hindreth Witches of their will,
Of purpose to despite him.
Then sprinkles she the juice of Rue, (6)
That groweth underneath the Yew: (7)
With nine drops of the midnight dew,
From Lunary distilling:
The Molewarp's (8) brain mixed therewithal;
And with the same the Pismire’s gall, (9)
For she in nothing short would fall;
The Fayrie was so willing.
Then thrice under a Briar doth creep,
Which at both ends was rooted deep,
And over it three times she leaped;
Her Magic much availing:
Then on Proserpina (10) doth call,
And so upon her spell doth fall,
Which here to you repeat I shall,
Not in one tittle failing.
By the croaking of the Frog;
By the howling of the Dog;
By the crying of the Hog,
Against the storm arising;
By the Evening Curfew bell;
By the doleful dying knell,
O let this my direful Spell,
Hob, hinder thy surprising.
By the Mandrake’s (11) dreadful groans;
By the Lubrican’s (12) sad moans;
By the noise of dead men’s bones,
In Charnel houses rattling:
By the hissing of the Snake,
The rustling of the fire-Drake, (13)
I charge thee thou this place forsake,
Nor of Queene Mab be prattling.
By the Whirlwind’s hollow sound,
By the Thunder’s dreadful stound, (14)
Yells of Spirits under ground,
I charge thee not to fear us:
By the Screech-owl’s dismal note,
By the Black Night-Raven’s throat,
I charge thee, Hob, to tear thy Coat
With thorns if thou come near us,
Her Spell thus spoke she stepped aside,
And in a Chink herself doth hide,
To see thereof what would betide,
For she alone doth mind him:
When presently she Puck espies,
And well she marked his gloating eyes,
How under every leaf he spies,
In seeking still to find them.
But once the Circle got within,
The Charms to work do straight begin,
And he was caught as in a Gin; (15)
For as he thus was busy,
A pain he in his Head-peace feels,
Against a stubbed Tree he reels,
And up went poor Hobgoblin’s heels,
Alas his brain was dizzy.
At length upon his feet he gets,
Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets,
And as again he forward sets,
And through the Bushes scrambles;
A Stump doth trip him in his pace,
Down comes poor Hob upon his face,
And lamentably tore his case,
Amongst the Briars and Brambles.
A plague upon Queen Mab, quoth he,
And all her Maids where e’er they be,
I think the Devil guided me,
To seek her so provoked.
Where stumbling at a piece of Wood,
He fell into a ditch of mud,
Where to the very Chin he stood,
In danger to be choked.
Now worse than e’er he was before:
Poor Puck doth yell, poor Puck doth roar;
That wak’d Queene Mab who doubted sore
Some Treason had been wrought her:
Until Nimphidia told the Queen
What she had done, what she had seen,
Who then had well-near crack’d her spleen
With very extreme laughter.
— Extracted and modernized from Nimphidia (1627).
NOTES
1 That lie upright. Persons who sleep on their backs rather than turned to the side are more subject to visitations by fairies, incubi, and succubi.
2 Mare that hight. That was called Nightmare.
3 Dancing the Haye. In a winding and sinuous movement, in this case flames or sparks weaving around in a burnt-out log or coal.
4 Hobgoblin. Another name for Puck; also Robin Good-fellow.
5 Vervayne. Verbena. Sacred leaves or twigs from laurel, olive, or myrtle.
6 Rue. Ruta graveolens, an evergreen with bitter leaves.
7 Yew. A tree with dark green foliage often planted in graveyards.
8 Molewarp or Mouldwarp. Old French and Teutonic name for the common
garden mole.
9 Pismire’s gall. A foul-smelling extract from an anthill, mostly formic acid.
10 Prosperpine, or Persephone. In this instance, in her guise as the wife of Pluto in
the underworld.
11 Mandrake. The root of the mandrake is shaped like a human body, and was
used in magic spells.
12 Lubrican. Leprechaun, from Irish luchorpan. An unhappy pygmy sprite, said to
be always engaged in an unsuccessful repair of a shoe, and to carry in its purse a
single shilling.
13 Fire-drake. Most likely a reference to the mythical salamander, a lizard-like
creature said to be capable of living in fire.
14 Stound. A violent noise, a shock, producing a state of amazement.
15 Gin. In this instances, a snare or net.
FROM THE FORTHCOMING ANTHOLOGY, TALES OF TERROR, SUPPLEMENT 1.
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