[This is mab the mistris-Fairy]
[Satyre]
This is mab the mistris-Fairy,
That doth nightly rob the dairy,
And can hurt, or help the cherning,
(As shee please) without discerning.
Elfe.
Pug, you will anon take warning?
Shee, that pinches countrey wenches,
If they rub not cleane their benches,
And with sharper nayles remembers,
When they take not up their embers:
But if so they chance to feast her,
In a shooe shee drops a tester.
Elfe.
Shall we strip the skipping jester?
This is shee, that empties cradles,
Takes out children, puts in ladles:
Traynes forth Mid-wives in their slumber,
With a sieve the holes to number.
And then leads them, from her borroughs,
Home through ponds, and water-furrowes.
Elfe.
Shall not all this mocking stirre us?
Shee can start our Franklins daughters,
In their sleepe, with shrikes, and laughters,
And on sweet Saint Annes night,
Feed them with a promis'd sight,
Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an emptie dreame discovers.
Elfe.
Satyre, vengeance neare you hovers.
And in hope that you would come here
Yester-eve the lady
For she was expected there on Mid-summer day at night, but came not till the day following.
Summer,
Shee invited to a banquet,
But (in sooth) I con you thanke yet,
That you could so well deceive her
Of the pride which gan up-heave her:
And (by this) would so have blowne her,
As no wood-god shoud have knowne her.
Here hee skipped into the wood.
Elfe.
Mistris, this is onely spight:
For you would not yester-night
Kisse him in the cock-shout light.
And came againe.
Satyre.
By Pan, and thou hast hit it right.
There they laid hold on him, and nipt him.
Fairy.
Fairyes, pinch him black and blue,
Now you have him, make him rue.
Satyre.
O, hold, Mab: I sue.
Elfe.
Nay the devill shall have his due.
