Fireflies. 215 



merited by Mistress QuiCKLY, Anne Page, Sir HuGH 



Evans and others disguised as fairies, Sir HUGH says : — 



" Pray you lock hand-in-hand : 



Yourselves in order set ; 



And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be. 



To guide our measure round about the tree." 



In the " Midsummer Night's Dream" TiTANlA when 



ordering the elves to wait on the Weaver desires them : — 



•* The honey-bags steal from the humble bees, 

 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs 

 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 

 To have my love to bed and to arise." 



And in Hamlet'S interview with his father's ghost, when 

 the spirit is about to depart, it exclaims 

 " Fare thee well at once, 



The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, 



And 'gins to pale his uneffeftual fire : 



Adieu, adieu I" 

 In Drayton's Nymphidia, the encounter of Telamon 

 with a glow-worm when the Fairy King is seeking his 

 missing Queen is thus described : 



" He next upon a glow-worm light, 



(You must suppose it now was night) 



Which, for her hinder part was bright 



He took to be a devil : 



And furiously doth her assail, 



For carrying fire in her tail ; 



He thrashed her rough coat with his flail ; 



The mad King feared no evil, 



' Oh !' quoth the glow-worm, ' hold thy hand — 



Thou puissant King of fairy-land, 



Thy mighty strokes who may withstand ? 



Hold, or of life despair I.' 



Together then herself doth roll, 



And tumbling down into a hole, 



She seemed as black as any cole, 



Which vext away the fairy." 



