Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/147

Rh My pretty light fantastic maid, I here invoke thee to my aid, Then may I speak what thou hast said
 * In numbers smoothly swelling."

The consequent poem is too long to be given in these pages as a whole. It has been frequently reprinted, and is no doubt accessible to most members of the F. L. S. I shall therefore only quote in full such passages of it as are of special interest to us and to men like-minded, shall connect them by a slender thread of narrative "transposed," and duly—I pray not unduly—test the patience of the reader by sundry notes and comments. Let me premise that Drayton's fairies are true Teutonic tinies, and not the full-sized supernatural creatures of classic poets, or the enchanted quasi-human beings of mediæval romance.

The abode of the Fairy King is ingeniously described, though it may be observed that its site is no longer in the subterranean region where King Arthur is said to have been feasted by the fairy —