Part 13 (1/2)

”Come all into this nut,” quoth she, ”Come closely in; be ruled by me; Each one may here a chooser be, For room ye need not wrastle: 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.

Nymphidia, that this while doth watch, Perceived 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 do her harm, For throughly 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 circ.u.mstance and having scanned, She came thereby to understand, Puck would be with them out of hand; When to her charms she hied 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 vervain and her dill, That hindreth witches of their will, Of purpose to despite him.

Then sprinkles she the juice of rue, That groweth underneath the yew; With nine drops of the midnight dew, From lunary distilling: The molewarp's brain mixed therewithal; {108a} And with the same the pismire's gall: For she in nothing short would fall, The Fairy was so willing.

Then thrice under a briar doth creep, Which at both ends was rooted deep, And over it three times she leap; Her magic much availing: Then on Proserpina doth call, And so upon her spell doth fall, Which here to you repeat I shall, Not in one t.i.ttle failing.

”By the croaking of a 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 dreadful groans; {108b} By the lubrican's sad moans; {108c} By the noise of dead men's bones In charnel-houses rattling; By the hissing of the snake, The rustling of the fire-drake, {108d} I charge thee thou this place forsake, Nor of Queen Mab be prattling!

”By the whirlwind's hollow sound, By the thunder's dreadful stound, Yells of spirits underground, 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 stept aside, And in a c.h.i.n.k herself doth hide, To see thereof what would betide, For she doth only mind him: When presently she Puck espies, And well she marked his gloating eyes, How under every leaf he pries, 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; For as he thus was busy, A pain he in his head-piece 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'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 waked Queen Mab, who doubted sore Some treason had been wrought her: Until Nymphidia told the Queen What she had done, what she had seen, Who then had well-near cracked her spleen With very extreme laughter.

But leave we Hob to clamber out, Queen Mab and all her Fairy rout, And come again to have a bout With Oberon yet madding: And with Pigwiggin now distraught, Who much was troubled in his thought, That he so long the Queen had sought, And through the fields was gadding.

And as he runs he still doth cry, ”King Oberon, I thee defy, And dare thee here in arms to try, For my dear lady's honour: For that she is a Queen right good, In whose defence I'll shed my blood, And that thou in this jealous mood Hast laid this slander on her.”

And quickly arms him for the field, A little c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l his s.h.i.+eld, Which he could very bravely wield; Yet could it not be pierced: His spear a bent both stiff and strong, And well-near of two inches long: The pile was of a horse-fly's tongue, Whose sharpness nought reversed.

And puts him on a coat of mail, Which was made of a fish's scale, That when his foe should him a.s.sail, No point should be prevailing: His rapier was a hornet's sting, It was a very dangerous thing, For if he chanced to hurt the King, It would be long in healing.

His helmet was a beetle's head, Most horrible and full of dread, That able was to strike one dead, Yet did it well become him; And for a plume a horse's hair, Which, being tossed with the air, Had force to strike his foe with fear, And turn his weapon from him.

Himself he on an earwig set, Yet scarce he on his back could get, So oft and high he did curvet, Ere he himself could settle: He made him turn, and stop, and bound, To gallop, and to trot the round, He scarce could stand on any ground, He was so full of mettle.

When soon he met with Tomalin, One that a valiant knight had been, And to King Oberon of kin; Quoth he, ”Thou manly Fairy, Tell Oberon I come prepared, Then bid him stand upon his guard; This hand his baseness shall reward, Let him be ne'er so wary.

”Say to him thus, that I defy His slanders and his infamy, And as a mortal enemy Do publicly proclaim him: Withal that if I had mine own, He should not wear the Fairy crown, But with a vengeance should come down, Nor we a king should name him.”

This Tomalin could not abide, To hear his sovereign vilified; But to the Fairy Court him hied, (Full furiously he posted,) With everything Pigwiggin said: How t.i.tle to the crown he laid, And in what arms he was arrayed, As how himself he boasted.

Twixt head and foot, from point to point, He told the arming of each joint, In every piece how neat and quoint, For Tomalin could do it: How fair he sat, how sure he rid, As of the courser he bestrid, How managed, and how well he did: The King which listened to it,