The dauncing past, the board was laid,
And siker such a feast was made

As heart and lip desire.
Withouten hands the dishes fly,
The glasses with a wish come nigh,

And with a wish retire.

But now to please the fairie king,
Full ev'ry deal they laugh and sing,

And antic feats devise;
Some wind and tumble like an ape,
And other some transmute their shape

In Edwin's wond'ring eyes:

Till one at last, that Robin hight,
Renown'd for pinching maids by night,

Has hent him up aloof;
And full against the beam he flung,
Where by the back the youth he hung

To spraul unneath the roof.

From thence, “Reverse my charna!” he crics, “And let it fairly now suffice

The gambol has been shown.” But Oberon answers with a smile, “Content thee, Edwin, for a while,

The vantage is thine own.”

a

a

Here ended all the phantom play;
They smelt the fresh approach of day,

And heard a cock to crow;
The whirling wind that bore the crowd
Has clapp'd the door, and whistled loud,

To warn them all to go.

Then screaming all at once they fly,
And all at once the tapers die;

Poor Edwin falls to floor;
Forlorn his state, and dark the place.
Was never wight in such a case

Through all the land before.

But soon as Dan Apollo rose,
Full jolly creature home he goes,

He feels his back the less;
His honest tongue and steady mind
Had rid him of the lump behind,

Which made him want success.

With lusty livelyhed he talks,
He seems a dauncing as he walks,

His story soon took wind;
And beauteous Edith sees the youth
Endow'd with courage, sense, and truth,

Without a bunch behind.

The story told, Sir Topaz mov'd, The youth of Edith' erst approv'd,

To see the revel scene; At close of eve he leaves his home, And wends to find the ruin'd dome

All on the gloomy plain.

As there he bides, it so besel,
The wind came rustling down a dell,

A shaking seiz'd the wall:
Up sprung the tapers as before,
The fairies bragly foot the floor,

And music fills the hall.

But certes, solely sunk with woe,
Sir Topaz sees the Elphin show,

His spirits in him dye;
When Oberon crys,

« A man is near, A mortal passion, cleeped fear,

Hangs flagging in the sky."

With that Sir Topaz, lapless youth! In accents falt'ring, ay for ruth,

Intreats them pity graunt; “For als he been a mister wight Betray'd by wand'ring in the night

To tread the circled haunt."

N

« Ah Losell vile!" at once they roar; “ And little skill'd of fairie lore,

Thy cause to come, we know: Now has thy kestrell courage fell; And fairies, since a lye you tell,

Are free to work thee woe."

Then Will, who bears the wispy fire
To trail the swains among the mire,

The captive upward flung;
There like a tortoise in a shop
He dangled from the chamber-top,

Where whilome Edwin hung.

The revel now proceeds apace,
Deftly they frisk it o'er the place,

They sit, they drink, and eat;
The time with frolic mirth beguile,
And poor Sir Topaz bangs the while

"Till all the rout retreat.

By this the stars began to wink,
They shriek, they fly, the tapers sink,

And down ydrops the knight;
For never spell by fairie laid
With strong enchantment bound a glade

Beyond the length of night.

Chill, dark, alone, adreed, lie lay,
'Till up the welkin rose the day,

Then deem'd the dole was o'er:
But wot ye well his harder lot?
His seely back the bunch had got

Which Edwin lost afore.

This tale a Sybil-nurse ared;
She softly stroak'd my youngling head,

And when the tale was done, « Thus some are born, any son,” she cries, With base impediments to rise,

And some are born with none.

But virtue can itself advance
To what the fav’rite fools of chance

By fortune seem'd design'd:
Virtue can gain the odds of fate,
And from itself shake off the weight

Upon th' unworthy mind.”