"Exalt thy love-dejected heart,
Be mine the task, or ere we part,
To make thee grief resign;
Now take the pleasure of thy chaunce;
Whilst I with Mab, my partner, daunce,
Be little Mable thine."

He spoke, and all a sudden there
Light music floats in wanton air ;

The monarch leads the queen :
The rest their fairy 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 fairy king,
Full every 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 wondering eyes.

Till one at last, that Robin hight, Renown'd for pinching maids by night, Has bent 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 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 dye;
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 truti,
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 fairies bragly foot the floor,

And music fills the hall.

But certes sorely sunk with woe
Sir Topaz sees the elphin show,
His spirits in him dye :
When Oberon cries, "A man is near,
A mortal passion, cleeped fear,
Hangs flagging in the sky."
With that sir Topaz, hapless youth!
In accents faultering, ay for ruth,
Entreats them pity graunt;
For als he been a mister wight
Betray'd by wandering in the night

To tread the circled haunt; "Ah, losel vile," at once they roar: "And little skill'd of fairie lore,

Thy cause to come, we know: Now has thy kestrel courage fell; And fairies, since a lye you tell, Are free to work thee woe. AA S

99

Then Will, who bears the whispy fire
To trail the swains among the mire,
The caitiff 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 hangs the while
Till all the rout retreat.

By this the stars began to wink,
They shriek, they fly, the tapers sink,
And down y-drops the knight:
For never spell by fairie laid
With strong enchantment bound a glade,
Beyond the length of night.

Chill, dark, alone, adreed, he 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, my son," she cries, "With base impediments to rise,

And some are born with nonc

But virtue can itself advance

To what the favourite fools of chance
By fortune seem design`d;

Virtue can gain the odds of Fate,
And from itself shake off the weight
Upon th' unworthy mind."

A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH. By the blue taper's trembling light, No more I waste the wakeful night, Intent with endless view to pore The schoolmen and the sages o'er : Their books from wisdom widely stray, Or point at best the longest way. I'll seek a readier path, and go Where wisdom's surely taught below.

How deep yon azure dyes the sky! Where orbs of gold unnumber'd lie, While through their ranks in silver pride The nether crescent seems to glide. The slumbering breeze forgets to breathe, The lake is smooth and clear beneath, Where once again the spangled show Descends to meet our eyes below. The grounds, which on the right aspire, In dimness from the view retire: The left presents a place of graves, Whose wall the silent water laves. That steeple guides thy doubtful sight Among the livid gleams of night.