DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 311 



by a learned bibliographical friend, John Crosse, Esq, 

 of Hull, in Herrick's Hesperides, 1658. 



Shapcof, to thee the fairy state 



I with discretion dedicate; 



Because thou prizest things that are 



Curious and unfamiliar. 



Take first the feast: these dishes gone, 



We'll see the fairy court anon. 



A little mushroom table spread ; 



After short prayers, they set on bread, 



A moon-parch'd grain of purest wheat. 



With some small glitt'ring grit io eat 



His choicest bits with : then in a trice 



They make a feast less great than nice. 



But, all this while his eye is serv'd, 



We must not think his ear was starv'd ; 



But that there was in place io stir 



His spleen, the chirring grasshopper. 

 The merry cricket, puling fly. 

 The piping gnat for minstrelsy : 

 And now we must imagine first 

 The elves present, to quench his thirst, 

 A pure seed pearl of infant dew, 

 Brought and besweeten'd in a blue 

 And pregnant violet; which done, 

 His kitling eyes begin io run 

 Quite through the table, where he spies 

 The horns of papery butterflies. 

 Of which he eats, and tastes a little 

 Of what we calf the cuckoo's spittle : 

 A little furze-ball pudding stands 

 By J yet not blessed by his hands. 



