Richard Corbet
¶[1582-1635]
¶ijg Farewell, Rewards and FairiesFarewell, rewards and fairies.Good housewives now may say,For now foul sluts in dairiesDo fare as well as they.And though they sweep their hearths no lessThan maids were wont to do.Yet who of late for cleannessFinds sixpence in her shoe?
¶Lament, lament, old Abbeys,The Fairies' lost command!They did but change Priests' babies.But some have changed your land.And all your children, sprung from thence,Are now grown Puritans,Who live as Changelings ever sinceFor love of your demains.
¶At morning and at evening bothYou merry were and glad.So little care of sleep or slothThese pretty ladies had;When Tom came home from labour.Or Cis to milking rose.Then merrily went their tabor.And nimbly went their toes.
¶Witness those rings and roundelaysOf theirs, which yet remain.Were footed in Queen Mary's daysOn many a grassy plain;[316]But since of late, Elizabeth,And later, James came in,They never danced on any heathAs when the time hath been.
¶By which we note the FairiesWere of the old Profession.Their songs were 'Ave Mary's',Their dances were Procession.But now, alas, they all are dead;Or gone beyond the seas;Or farther for Religion fled;Or else they take their ease.
¶A tell-tale in their companyThey never could endure!And whoso kept not secredyTheir mirth, was punished, sure;It was a just and Christian deedTo pinch such black and blue.Oh how the commonwealth doth wantSuch Justices as you!