as great a pitch of extravagance in former days as that for horse-racing in our time, and a falconer's duty must have been a very laborious one. Night and day he lived amongst his feathered scholars, and was obliged to be constantly on the alert in regard to feeding, physicking, and teaching them. In fact, the situation of a mother with six small children is a sinecure compared with his. If the books on the subject are to be believed, he sometimes watched three or four nights with some particularly valuable bird (whose education was of great consequence), perched upon his fist.

The hereditary title "Grand Falconer of England" still exists, and appertains to his Grace the Duke of St. Albans, but the unerring accuracy of a double-barrelled Joe Manton has entirely superseded the use of any other agent for the slaughter of the mounting hearn or fearful duck.

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Dancing.

"The next recreation is Dancing, but that with some "difference from the common exercise now-a-days of it in our masks and revels: as not grounded on the dancing "of measures, and accordingly bound to some particular "rules and numbers, proper to the nature of that dance only which is then afoot; but fashioned like those antique dances which the poets would have us believe the "fairies and satyrs, and those other rural natures frequented; and having in them much more variety and change than any other composition, so that in singing, cunningly and sprightfully to resemble them must needs "give the performance high commendation, and the hearer "the most pleasing delight that may be."

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CCLXXXVIII.

The Fairies' Dance.

Dare you haunt our hallow'd green?
None but fairies here are seen.

Down and sleep,

Wake and weep,

Pinch him black, and pinch him blue,

That seeks to steal a lover true.

When you come to hear us sing,
Or to tread our fairy ring,

Pinch him black, and pinch him blue;

Thus our nails shall handle you.

Music by Ravenscroft.

The pranks of the good people have been the subject of many a tale from the Midsummer Night's Dream down to Tam o' Shanter. For my own part I will have nothing to do with them, in case the penalty should be the same for speaking of them as to them, as Sir John Falstaff says, "They be fairies-he that speaks to them shall die."

CCLXXXIX.

The Satyrs' Dance.

Round a, round a, keep your ring;

To the glorious sun we sing-ho, ho!
He that wears the flaming rays,

And th' imperial crown of bays:

Him with shouts and songs we praise-ho, ho!
That in his bounty he 'd vouchsafe to grace
The humble sylvans and their shaggy race.

Music by Ravenscroft.

A dance of satyrs was frequently introduced in masques and other stage performances. Vide Winter's Tale, act iv. s. 3.: "Enter servant, with twelve rustics habited like "satyrs: they dance, and then exeunt."

CCXC.

The Urchins' Dance.

By the moon we sport and play,
With the night begins our day:

As we frisk, the dew doth fall;
Trip it, little urchins all:

Lightly as the little bee,

Two by two, and three by three,

Thus about, about go we.

Urchin in its original signification is a hedgehog, but came to be applied to a little elf or goblin of a mischievous kind, and thence to a child of a similar disposition.

CCXCI.

The Elves' Dance.

Round about in fairy ring a,

Thus we dance and thus we sing a :

Trip and go, to and fro,

Over this green a.

All about, in and out,

Over this green a.

Music by J. Bennet.

An elf was a genius, good or bad, pertaining to mountains, woods, &c.

"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves." Shakspeare.

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Drinking.

"Drinking is our fourth recreation, for so it is become "at least, if not the first, by the use and delight that men now take in it: they especially who, for want of skill and reason in that which they perform, set their strength and spirits to search it out of the other elements; chiefly out "of these two, fire and water, well composed and brewed together, wherein they are resolved to grow exceedingly "skilful, or else it shall cost their brains a firing, and their "bowels a drowning; in which elements they hover unlike "men, so long, so desperately; that at last, in their miser"able end, they scarce get earth honestly to cover them.

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"The composer hopes that the perfect presentation of "this illaudable demeanour will turn this sport into so much earnest, as shall cause the innocent auditor to loath them, "if perhaps not to reclaim the guilty."

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Amen! say I.

CCXCII.

Trudge away quickly, and fill the black bowl,
Devoutly as long as we bide:

Now welcome good fellows, both strangers and all,
Let madness and mirth set sadness aside.

Of all reckonings, I love good cheer,
With honest folk in company :

And when drink comes, my part to bear,
For still methinks one tooth is dry.

Masters, this is all my desire,

I would no drink should pass us by;
Let us now sing and mend the fire,

For still methinks one tooth is dry.

Mr. Butler, give us a taste

Of your best drink so gently:
A jug or twain, and make no waste,
For still methinks one tooth is dry.

Mr. Butler, of this take part;

You love good drink as well as I:
And drink to me with all your heart,
For still methinks one tooth is dry.

Music by Ravenscroft.

This and the following song certainly do set forth in glowing colours what Ravenscroft calls "this illaudable "demeanor."

CCXCIII.

Chor. Toss the pot, toss the pot, let us be merry,

And drink till our cheeks be as red as a cherry:

We take no thought, we have no care,
For still we spend and never spare:

Till of our money our purse is bare,

We ever toss the pot.

Chorus. Toss the pot, &c.

We drink, carouse, with heart most free;

A hearty draught I drink to thee:

Then fill the pot again to me,

And ever toss the pot.

Chorus. Toss the pot, &c.

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