Bleach'd by the whitenesse of the snow,
As the stormy windes did blow
It in the vast and freezing aire ;
No shirt halfe so fine, so faire.

A rich wastcoat they did bring, Made of the trout-flies gilded wing; At that his elveship 'gan to fret, Swearing it would make him sweat, Even with its weight, and needs would wear His wastcoat wove of downy haire, New shaven from an eunuch's chin; That pleas'd him well, 'twas wondrous thin. The outside of his doubtlet was Made of the four leav'd true-love grasse, On which was set so fine a glosse, By the oyle of crispy mosse ; That through a mist, and starry light, It made a rainbow every night.

On every seam, there was a lace

Drawn by the unctuous snailes slow trace; To it, the purest silver thread

Compar'd, did look like dull pale lead.

Each button was a sparkling eye
Ta'ne from the speckled adders frye,
Which in a gloomy night, and dark,
Twinckled like a fiery spark:

And, for coolnesse, next his skin,
'Twas with white poppy lin'd within.

His breeches of that fleece were wrought,

Which from Colchos Jason brought;

Spun into so fine a yarne,

That mortals might it not discerne;
Wove by Arachne, in her loom,
Just before she had her doom ;

Dy'd crimson with a maiden's blush,
And lyn'd with dandelyon push.

A

POEM by Sir Simon Steward,1 from the "Musarum De ciæ, or the Muses Recreation," 12mo, Lond. 1656. Ot copies of it are in MS. Ashmole 38, f. 99, MS. Ra Poet. 147, and MS. Malone 17. A great part of it, with so variations, is inserted in Poole's "English Parnassus."

When the monthly horned Queen
Grew jealous, that the stars had seen
Her rising from Endimions armes,
In rage, she throws her misty charmes
Into the bosome of the night,
To dim their curious prying light.
Then did the dwarfish faery elves
(Having first attir'd themselves)
Prepare to dresse their Oberon king
In highest robes for revelling.
In a cobweb shirt, more thin
Then ever spider since could spin,

1 [But see what is said in Hazlitt's edition of Herrick, 18 P. 475-7-]

it the faults therein contained, which beeing innocent ind urmelesse, can give no great disturbance to thy patience, but please thy palate with varietie of mirth, and not doubung but my labour will bee remunerable win your good approbation, I shall thinke my paines well maken, and myselfe really satisfied with your consentment, emboldning me to subscribe myselfe,

Yours hereafter, if now approved on,

"R. S."

Immediately following this is an extract from Sewind's poem on Fairies, under the title of " A Description of the King of Fayries clothes, brought to him on New-reire's day, in the morning, 1626, by his Queene's chambermus We have then a poetical address from the compiler, who has thought proper to leave out the names of his authorities:

Deepe skild geographers, whose art and skill
Do traverse all the world, and with their quill
Declare the strangeness of each severall clime,
The nature, scituation, and the time
Of being inhabited; yet all their art
And deepe-informed skill could not impart
In what set climate of this orbe or ile,
The king of Fayries kept, whose honor'd stile
Is here inclos'd with the sincere description
Of his abode, his nature, and the region
In which he rules: reade, and thou shalt find
Delightfull mirth, fit to content thy mind.
May the contents thereof thy palate sute,
With its mellifluous and pleasing fruit :
For nought can more be sweetn'd to my mind,
Than that this pamphlet thy contentment find;
Which, if it shall, my labour is suffic'd,

In being by your liking highly priz’d.

The remainder of the tract is occupied with extracts from Herrick, the beautiful little ballad of "Robin Goodfellow," printed by Percy, and the poem on Melancholy, prefixed to the early editions of Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy." From this last-mentioned poem Milton is supposed to have derived the hint of "Il Pensoroso."