http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMj7O9LZpU8 A song that would have been considered funny/satirical when it was written, in the mid-seventeenth century. THE FAIRIES' FAREWELL by Bishop Richard Corbet Farewell rewards and fairies, Good housewives now may say, For now foul sluts in dairies Do fare as well as they. And tho' they sweep their hearths no less Than maids were wont to do, Yet who of late for cleanliness Finds 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 since For love of your domains. At morning and at evening both They merry were and glad, So little care of sleep or sloth These 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 roundelays Of theirs, which yet remain, Were footed in Queen Mary's days On many a grassy plain; But since of late, Elizabeth, And later, James came in, They never danced on any heath As when the time hath been. By which we note the Fairies Were 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 company They never could endure! And whoso kept not secretly Their mirth, was punished, sure; It was a just and Christian deed To pinch such black and blue. Oh how the commonwealth doth want Such Justices as you! Now they have left our quarters, A register they have, Who can preserve their charters, A man both wise and grave; A hundred of their merry pranks By one that I could name Are kept in store; con twenty thanks To William for the same. To William Chourne of Staffordshire Give land and praises due, Who every meal can mend your cheer With tales both old and true; To William all give audience, And pray ye for his noddle, For all the fairies' evidence Were lost, if that were addle.
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