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| SHAPCOT! to thee the Fairy State | |
| I with discretion dedicate: | |
| Because thou prizest things that are | |
| Curious and unfamiliar, | |
| Take first the feast; these dishes gone, | 5 |
| We’ll see the Fairy-court anon. | |
| A little mushroom-table spread, | |
| After short prayers, they set on bread, | |
| A moon-parched grain of purest wheat, | |
| With some small glitt’ring grit, to eat | 10 |
| His choice bits with; then in a trice | |
| They make a feast less great than nice. | |
| But all this while his eye is served, | |
| We must not think his ear was sterved; | |
| But that there was in place to stir | 15 |
| His spleen, the chirring grasshopper, | |
| The merry cricket, puling fly, | |
| The piping gnat for minstrelsy. | |
| And now, we must imagine first, | |
| The elves present, to quench his thirst, | 20 |
| A pure seed-pearl of infant dew, | |
| Brought and besweetened in a blue | |
| And pregnant violet; which done, | |
| His kitling eyes begin to run | |
| Quite through the table, where he spies | 25 |
| The horns of papery butterflies, | |
| Of which he eats; and tastes a little | |
| Of that we call the cuckoo’s spittle; | |
| A little fuz-ball pudding stands | |
| By, yet not blessèd by his hands, | 30 |
| That was too coarse; but then forthwith | |
| He ventures boldly on the pith | |
| Of sugared rush, and eats the sagge | |
| And well-bestrutted bees’ sweet bag; | |
| Gladding his palate with some store | 35 |
| Of emmet’s eggs; what would he more? | |
| But beards of mice, a newt’s stewed thigh, | |
| A bloated earwig, and a fly; | |
| With the red-capt worm, that ’s shut | |
| Within the concave of a nut, | 40 |
| Brown as his tooth. A little moth, | |
| Late fattened in a piece of cloth; | |
| With withered cherries, mandrakes’ ears, | |
| Moles’ eyes: to these the slain stag’s tears; | |
| The unctuous dew-laps of a snail, | 45 |
| The broke-heart of a nightingale | |
| O’ercome in music; with a wine | |
| Ne’er ravished from the flattering vine, | |
| But gently prest from the soft side | |
| Of the most sweet and dainty bride, | 50 |
| Brought in a dainty daisy, which | |
| He fully quaffs up, to bewitch | |
| His blood to height; this done, commended | |
| Grace by his priest; The feast is ended. | |
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