The rest their faerie partners found,
And Mable trimly tript the ground
With Edwin of the green.

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 faerie king,
Full every deal they laugh and sing,
And antick feats devise;

Some wind and tumble like an ape,
And other-some transmute their shape
In Edwin's wondering 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 charm,' he cries, '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.

Here ended all the phantome 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 sike 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
Han 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 befell,
The wind came rustling down a dell,
A shaking seiz'd the wall:

Up spring the tapers as before,
The faeries bragly foot the floor,
And musick fills the hall.

But certes sorely sunk with woe
Sir Topaz sees the elfin show,
His spirits in him die :
When Oberon cries, ' A man is near,
A mortall passion, cleeped fear,
Hangs flagging in the sky.'

With that Sir Topaz, hapless youth!
In accents faultering ay for ruth
Intreats them pity graunt;
For als he been a mister wight
Betray'd by wandering in the night
To tread the circled haunt.

'Ah losell vile!' at once they roar,

And little skill'd of faerie lore,

Thy cause to come we know:

Now has thy kestrell courage fell;
And faeries, since a lie you tell,

Are free to work thee woe.'

Then Will, who bears the wispy fire
To trail the swains among the mire,
The caitive upward flung;

There like a tortoise in a shop
He dangled from the chamber-top,
Where whilome Edwin hung.

The revel now proceeds apace,
Deffly they frisk it o'er the place,
They sit, they drink, and eat;

The time with frolick mirth beguile,
Sir Topaz hangs the while

And

poor

Till all the rout retreat.

By this the starrs began to wink, They shriek, they fly, the tapers sink, And down ydrops the knight:

For never spell by faerie laid

With strong enchantment bound a glade Beyond the length of night.

Till

Chill, dark, alone, adreed, he lay,
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 has got
Which Edwin lost afore.

This tale a Sybil-nurse ared;

She softly strok'd my youngling head, And when the tale was done,

Thus some are born, my son,' she cries, With base impediments to rise,

And some are born with none.

'But virtue can itself advance

To what the favourite 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.'