"Thorough brake, thorough brier,
Thorough muck, thorough mier,
Thorough water, thorough fier,"[1]
he went upon his errand. Puck's tactics were known to Drayton's friend the sly sprite Nymphidia, who was keeping watch over the movements of the king, and she left her post in order to warn her mistress. Great indeed was the dismay with which her tidings were received:—
"The queen bound with Love's powerful charm,
Sate with Pigwiggen arm in arm,
Her merry maids that thought no harm,
About the room were skipping;
A humble bee, their minstrel, play'd
Upon his hautboy: ev'ry maid
Fit for this revel was array'd,
The hornpipe neatly tripping."
When in burst Nymphidia with her news, and the whole party was dispersed "like chaff i' th' wind." The fairies justled against each other: some tore a ruff and some a gown, some left their masks behind, some left their gloves, "there never was such bustling." At length one of the fays descried a hazel-nut which had its end gnawed off, and had been rifled by a squirrel:—
"'Come all into this nut,' quoth she,
'Come closely in, be ruled by me;
Each one may here a chooser be.
For room ye need not wrestle.
Nor need ye be together heaped:'
So one by one therein they crept,
And lying down they soundly slept.
As safe as in a castle."
Room enough and to spare in a hazel-nut shell for Mab, for Hop, Mop, Drap, Pip, Trip, Skip, Fib, Tib, Pinck, Pin, Tick, Quick, Jill, Jin, Tit, Nit, Wap, and Win. Homer in a nutshell is nothing to this. Was ever fairy proportion more distinctly and yet delicately delineated?
- ↑ Said to be "conveyed," from A Midsummer Night's Dream" (act ii. sc. 1) and not improved in the process:
"Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale.
Thorough flood, thorough fire."
