8 But trust me, gentles! never yet
Was dight a masquing half so neat,
Or half so rich before;
The country lent the sweet perfumes,
The sea the pearl, the sky the plumes,
The town its silken store.

9 Now whilst he gazed, a gallant dress’d
In flaunting robes above the rest,
With awful accent cried: 
What mortal of a wretched mind,
Whose sighs infect the balmy wind,
Has here presumed to hide?

10 At this the swain, whose venturous soul
No fears of magic art control,
Advanced in open sight: 
Nor have I cause of dread, he said,
Who view, by no presumption led,
Your revels of the night.

11 ’Twas grief, for scorn of faithful love,
Which made my steps unweeting rove
Amid the nightly dew. 
’Tis well, the gallant cries again,
We Faeries never injure men
Who dare to tell us true.

12 Exalt thy love-dejected heart,
Be mine the task, or e’er we part,
To make thee grief resign;
Now take the pleasure of thy chaunce;
Whilst I with Mab my partner daunce,
Be little Mable thine.

13 He spoke, and all a-sudden there
Light music floats in wanton air;
The monarch leads the queen: 
The rest their Faerie partners found,
And Mable trimly tripp’d the ground
With Edwin of the green.

14 The dauncing past, the board was laid,
And siker such a feast was made
As heart and lip desire;
Withouten hands the dishes fly,
The glasses—­with a wish come nigh,
And with a wish retire.

15 But now, to please the Faerie King,
Full every deal, they laugh and sing,
And antic feats devise;
Some wind and tumble like an ape,
And other some transmute their shape
In Edwin’s wondering eyes.

16 Till one at last that Robin bight,
(Renown’d for pinching maids by night)
Has hent him up aloof;
And full against the beam he flung,
Where by the back the youth he hung
To spraul unneath the roof.

17 From thence, Reverse my charm, he cries,
And let it fairly now suffice
The gambol has been shown. 
But Oberon answers with a smile,
Content thee, Edwin, for a while,
The vantage is thine own.

18 Here ended all the phantom-play;
They smelt the fresh approach of day,
And heard a cock to crow;
The whirling wind that bore the crowd
Has clapp’d the door, and whistled loud,
To warn them all to go.

19 Then screaming all at once they fly,
And all at once the tapers die,
Poor Edwin falls to floor;
Forlorn his state, and dark the place,
Was never wight in sike a case
Through all the land before.

20 But soon as Dan Apollo rose,
Full jolly creature home he goes,
He feels his back the less;
His honest tongue and steady mind
Had rid him of the lump behind
Which made him want success.

21 With lusty livelyhed he talks,
He seems a-dauncing as he walks,
His story soon took wind;
And beauteous Edith sees the youth,
Endow’d with courage, sense, and truth,
Without a bunch behind.