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When men do traps and engines set

In loop-holes, where the vermin creep,

Who from their folds and houses fet *

Their ducks and geese, and lambs and sheep,
I spy the gin,

And enter in,

And seem a vermin taken so;

But when they there

Approach me near,

I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and gills, in meadows green,
We nightly dance our hey-day guise; †
And to our fairy king and queen

We chant our moonlight minstrelsies :

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It is more generally used for fetched.

† i.e. Heydeguies, country dances: as in Drayton's Poly-olbion,

Song 25.

‹ Dance many a merry round, and many a hydegy.'

When larks 'gin sing

Away we fling,

And babes new-born steal as we go,
An elf in bed

We leave instead,

And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!

From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
Thus nightly revel'd to and fro;
And, for my pranks, men call me by
The name of Robin Good-fellow :
Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
That haunt the nights,

The hags and goblins do me know

And belldames old

My feats have told :

So Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho!

SONG LVIII.

THE GRASSHOPPER.

(From Anacreon.)

BY ABRAHAM COWLEY, ESQ.

HAPPY insect! what can be,
In happiness, compar'd to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's gentle wine.
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill;

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'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread,
Nature's self's thy Ganymede.

Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing;
Happier than the happiest king!

All the fields, which thou dost see,
All the plants, belong to thee;
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice.

Man for thee does sow and plough;

Farmer he, and landlord thou!

Thou dost innocently 'joy;

Nor does thy luxury destroy;

The shepherd gladly heareth thee,
More harmonious than he.

Thee country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripen'd year!

Thee Phoebus loves, and does inspire;

Phoebus is himself thy sire.

To thee, of all things upon earth,

Life is no longer than thy mirth.

Happy insect! happy thou

Dost neither age nor winter know :

But, when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung

Thy fill, the flowery leaves among,

(Voluptuous, and wise withal,

Epicurean animal !)

Sated with thy summer-feast,
Thou retir'st to endless rest.

SONG LIX.

THE HUNTING OF THE HARE.

SONGS of Shepherds, in rustical roundelays, Form'd in fancy, and whistled on reeds, Sung to solace young nymphs upon holidays, Are too unworthy for wonderful deeds. Sottish Silenus

To Phoebus, the genius,

Was sent by dame Venus, a song to prepare, In phrase nicely coin'd,

And verse quite refin'd,

How the states divine hunted the hare.

Stars quite tir'd with pastimes Olympical, Stars and planets which beautiful shone, Could no longer endure that men only shall Swim in pleasures, and they but look on; Round about horned

Lucina they swarmed,

And her informed how minded they were, Each god and goddess,

To take human bodies,

As lords and ladies, to follow the hare.

Chaste Diana applauded the motion,
While pale Proserpina sat in her place,
To light the welkin, and govern the ocean,
While she conducted her nephews in chase :
By her example,

Their father to trample,

The earth old and ample, they soon leave the air;

Neptune the water,

And wine Liber Pater,

And Mars the slaughter, to follow the hare.

Light god Cupid was mounted on Pegasus,
Borrow'd of the Muses with kisses and pray'rs ;
Strong Alcides, upon cloudy Caucasus,

Mounts a centaur, which proudly him bears;
Postilion of the sky,

Light-heel'd Mercury

Made his courser fly, fleet as the air

While tuneful Apollo

The kennel did follow,

And hoop and halloo, boys, after the hare.

Drown'd Narcissus from his metamorphosis,
Rous'd by Echo, new manhood did take ;
Snoring Somnus upstarted from Cimmeris,
Before for a thousand years he did not wake;
There was club-footed

Mulciber booted,

And Pan promoted on Corydon's mare;

Proud Pallas pouted,

Loud Æolus shouted,

And Momus flouted, yet follow'd the hare.

Hymen ushers the lady Astræa,

The jest took hold of Latona the cold ;
Ceres the brown, with bright Cytherea ;
Thetis the wanton, Bellona the bold;
Shame-fac'd Aurora,

With witty Pandora,

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