Herrick's Fairy Poems And The Description Of The King And Queene Of Fayries Published 1635.

The publisher's freak, by which Herrick's three chief Fairy poems ("The Fairy Temple; or, Oberon's Chapel," "Oberon's Feast," and "Oberon's Palace") are separated from each other, is greatly to be regretted. The last two, both dedicated to Shapcott, are distinctly connected by their opening lines, and "Oberon's Chapel," dedicated to Mr. John Merrifield, Herrick's other fairy-loving lawyer, of course belongs to the same group. All three were probably first written in 1626 and cannot be dissociated from Drayton's _Nymphidia_, published in 1627, and Sir Simeon Steward's "A Description of the King of Fayries clothes, brought to him on New-yeares day in the morning, 1626 [O. S.], by his Queenes Chambermaids". In 1635 there was published a little book of a dozen leaves, most kindly transcribed for this edition by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, from the unique copy at the Bodleian Library. It is entitled:-- "A | Description | of the King and Queene of | Fayries, their habit, fare, their | abode pompe and state. | Beeing very delightfull to the sense, and | full of mirth. | [Wood-cut.] London. | _Printed for Richard Harper, and are to be sold | at his shop, at the Hospitall gate._ 1635." Fol. 1 is blank; fol. 2 occupied by the title-page; ff. 3, 4 (verso blank) by a letter "To the Reader," signed: "Yours hereafter, If now approved on, R. S.," beginning: "Courteous Reader, I present thee here with the Description of the King of the Fayries, of his Attendants, Apparel, Gesture, and Victuals, which though comprehended in the brevity of so short a volume, yet as the Proverbe truely averres, it hath as mellifluous and pleasing discourse, as that whose amplitude contains the fulnesse of a bigger composition"; on fol. 5 (verso blank) occurs the following poem [spelling here modernised]:--     "Deep-skilled Geographers, whose art and skill     Do traverse all the world, and with their quill     Declare the strangeness of each several clime,     The nature, situation, and the time     Of being inhabited, yet all their art     And deep informd skill could not impart     In what set climate of this Orb or Isle,     The King of Fairies kept, whose honoured style     Is here inclosed, with the sincere description     Of his abode, his nature, and the region     In which he rules: read, and thou shalt find     Delightful mirth, fit to content thy mind.     May the contents thereof thy palate suit,     With its mellifluous and pleasing fruit:     For nought can more be sweetened to my mind     Than that this Pamphlet thy contentment find;     Which if it shall, my labour is sufficed,     In being by your liking highly prized.              "Yours to his power,                      "R. S." This is followed (pp. 1-3) by: "A Description of the Kings [sic] of Fayries Clothes, brought to him on New-Yeares day in the morning, 1626, by his Queenes Chambermaids:--     "First a cobweb shirt, more thin     Than ever spider since could spin.     Changed to the whiteness of the snow,     By the stormy winds that blow     In the vast and frozen air,     No shirt half so fine, so fair;     A rich waistcoat they did bring,     Made of the Trout-fly's gilded wing:     At which his Elveship 'gan to fret     The wearing it would make him sweat     Even with its weight: he needs would wear     A waistcoat made of downy hair     New shaven off an Eunuch's chin,     That pleased him well, 'twas wondrous thin.     The outside of his doublet was     Made of the four-leaved, true-loved grass,     Changed into so fine a gloss,     With the oil of crispy moss:     It made a rainbow in the night     Which gave a lustre passing light.     On every seam there was a lace     Drawn by the unctuous snail's slow pace,     To which the finest, purest, silver thread     Compared, did look like dull pale lead.     His breeches of the Fleece was wrought,     Which from Colchos Jason brought:     Spun into so fine a yarn     No mortal wight might it discern,     Weaved by Arachne on her loom,     Just before she had her doom.     A rich Mantle he did wear,     Made of tinsel gossamer.     Beflowered over with a few     Diamond stars of morning dew:     Dyed crimson in a maiden's blush,     Lined with humble-bees' lost plush.     His cap was all of ladies' love,     So wondrous light, that it did move     If any humming gnat or fly     Buzzed the air in passing by,     About his neck a wreath of pearl,     Dropped from the eyes of some poor girl,     Pinched, because she had forgot     To leave clean water in the pot." The next page is occupied by a woodcut, and then (pp. 5, misnumbered 4, and 6) comes the variation on Herrick's "Oberon's Feast":--     "A DESCRIPTION OF HIS DIET.     "Now they, the Elves, within a trice,     Prepared a feast less great than nice,     Where you may imagine first,     The Elves prepare to quench his thirst,     In pure seed pearl of infant dew     Brought and sweetened with a blue     And pregnant violet; which done,     His killing eyes begin to run     Quite o'er the table, where he spies     The horns of watered butterflies,     Of which he eats, but with a little     Neat cool allay of cuckoo's spittle.     Next this the red-cap worm that's shut     Within the concave of a nut.     Moles' eyes he tastes, then adders' ears;     To these for sauce the slain stags' tears,     A bloated earwig, and the pith     Of sugared rush he glads him with.     Then he takes a little moth,     Late fatted in a scarlet cloth,     A spinner's ham, the beards of mice,     Nits carbonadoed, a device     Before unknown; the blood of fleas,     Which gave his Elveship's stomach ease.     The unctuous dew-laps of a snail,     The broke heart of a nightingale     O'ercome in music, with the sag     And well-bestrutted bee's sweet bag.     Conserves of atoms, and the mites,     The silk-worm's sperm, and the delights     Of all that ever yet hath blest     Fairy-land: so ends his feast." On the next page is printed: "Orpheus. Thrice excelling, for the finishment of this Feast, thou must music it so that the Deities may descend to grace it." This is succeeded by a page bearing a woodcut, then we have "The Fairies Fegaries," a poem occupying three more pages followed by another woodcut, and then "The Melancholly Lover's Song," and a third woodcut. The occurrence of the _Melancholy Lover's Song_ (the well-known lines beginning: "Hence all you vain delights") in print in 1635 is interesting, as I believe that _The Nice Valour_, the play in which they occur, was not printed till 1647, and Milton's _Il Penseroso_, which they suggested, appeared in 1645. But the verses are rather out of place in the little Fairy-Book.