THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES 131
hath left undone: her I pinch about the armes, for not laying her
armes to her labor. Some I find in their beds snorting and sleep-
ing, and their houses lying as cleane as a nasty doggs kennell; in
one corner bones, in another eg-shells, behind the doore a heap of
dust, the dishes under feet, and the cat in the cubbord: all these
sluttish trickes I doe reward with blue legges, and blue armes. I
find some slovens too, as well as sluts: they pay for their beast-
linesse too, as well as the women-kind.78
After the house, the fairies turned their attention to
its human occupants. In this case, their particular de-
testation was uncared-for hair :
Those that I find with their heads nitty and scabby, for want of
combing, I am their barbers, and cut their hayre as close as an apes
tayle; or else clap so much pitch on it, that they must cut it off
themselves to their great shame. . . . Some I find that spoyle their
master's horses for want of currying: those I doe daube with
grease and soote, and they are faine to curry themselves ere they
can get cleane.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thus many trickes, I, Pach, can doe,
But to the good I ne'ere was
The Mab of Romeo and Juliet turned from her state
coach and her triumphant journey through lovers' brains,
to become " that very Mab "
That plats the manes of horses in the night;
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.80
ls Robin Goodfellow; his mad prankes, and merry Jests, Hazlitt
rpt., p. 203. Cf. also Herrick, Hesperides, p. 201 ; Martin Llewellyn,
Men-Miracles, 1646, Song. At the Holly-Bush Guard, pp. 35-36.
l9 Robin Goodfellow; his mad prankes, and merry Jests, Hazlitt
rpt., p. 204.
R. €9 J., I, 4, 11. 89-91.