XXV. THE FAIRY QUEEN. We have here a short display of the popular belief concerning Fairies. Our Saxon ancestors believed in 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. This song is given (with some corrections by another copy) from a book entitled The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, etc. Lond. 1658, 8vo. XXVI. THE FAIRIES FAREWELL. THIS humorous old song fell from the hand of the witty Dr. Corbet (afterwards Bishop of Norwich, etc.), and is printed from his Poetica Stromata, 1648, 12mo, compared with the third edition of his poems, 1672. The departure of fairies is here attributed to the abolition of monachism. Dr. Richard Corbet, Bishop of Oxford, and afterwards 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; But some have chang'd your land: At morning and at evening both Witness those rings and roundelayes On many a grassy playne. And later James came in ; They never danc'd on any heath, As when the time hath bin. By which wee note the fairies Their dances were procession. A tell-tale in their company Their mirth, was punish'd sure: To pinch such blacke and blue: Now they have left our quarters; A Register they have, By one that I could name To William Churne of Staffordshire Who every meale can mend your cheare THE END OF BOOK THE SECOND. SERIES THE THIRD.-BOOK III. I.—THE BIRTH OF ST. GEORGE. 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 Bishop Hall says was among the most popular stories of his time. And Warton even thinks that Spenser took hints from it for his Faery Queene. Richard Johnson, author of the Seven Champions, lived in the reign of Elizabeth and James, and his work is probably the bringing together of the metrical romances of former ages. It seems to us that scarce justice enough has been done to him for the service he has rendered romantic literature. He has brought the whole of the series of traditions, fragments, and ballads together, making the patron saint of England the centre round which the whole revolves, in the same manner that Sir Thomas Mallony re-animated the Arthurian legends. St. George, according to Butler, was born in Cappadocia ; thus he became a soldier under Diocletian, but resigned his commissions and posts when that Emperor waged war against the Christian religion. He became the patron saint of soldiers, because he had been a military man himself. The Greeks are said to have given him the title of " the Great Martyr," and he is the patron saint of several Eastern nations. The English are held to have chosen him as their tutelar saint under the first Norman kings; thus the council at Oxford in 1222 commanded his feast to be kept a holiday of the lesser rank, and Edward III. under his name and ensign instituted the most noble order of knighthood in England. However, there is not much to be learned of him with certainty; but having been made the patron saint, and " St. George for England" being the national war-cry, it was naturally not long before poets began to celebrate his praises, and to clothe their hero with all the valiant deeds and romantic adventures possible. And from this beginning we have a series of metrical romances which add to our collection of ancient reliques. It cannot be denied but that the following ballad is for the most part modern; yet it embodies the account given by older writers. LISTEN, lords, in bower and hall, I sing the wonderous birth Of brave St. George, whose valourous arm Distressed ladies to relieve He travell'd many a day ; He had to wife a princely dame, Whose beauty did excell. This virtuous lady, being with child, For thirty nights no sooner sleep She dreamt a dragon fierce and fell |