DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 309 



ed personage Robin Goodfellow, " with all the fairy 

 elves that be," number insects amongst their choicest 

 cates, you will no longer be heretical in this article, but 

 yield with a good grace ; and as a reward I will copy out 

 for you a beautiful poetical description of Oberon's feast, 

 which was lately pointed out to me by a learned biblio- 

 graphical friend, John Crosse, Esq. of Hull, in Herrick's 

 Hesperides, 1658. 



Shapcot, 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 '11 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 to 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 to 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 to run 

 Quite through the table, where he spies 

 The horns of papery butterflies, 



