Michael Drayton - Nimphidia The Court of the Fayrie : 1st/1st 1924 : Original DW

Nimphidia The Court of the Fayrie : Newly printed from the Folio of 1627

By Michael Drayton

Published by Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1924. First Edition in original dust jacket. Slim 8vo, 38 pages. Text in blue and black.

CONDITION
A very good copy. The original dust jacket is very good with no tears, just a small nick from the top of the spine. Boards and spine very good. Endpapers good and there are no names or writing to the book. Pages clean throughout. Overall a good copy.

Michael Drayton (1563-1631) was an English poet whose work varied from political to mythical. His poem "Nymphidia" was published in 1627, at the height of a new fad for tiny fairies started by his contemporary William Shakespeare. "Nymphidia" is also known by the title “The Court of Fairy” or in some later editions “The History of Queen Mab”. It has remained a classic of fairy literature ever since.

Drayton explains that he heard the story from a fairy named Nymphidia. He introduces Pigwiggen, a fairy knight who begins wooing Queen Mab - sending her a bracelet of ant's eyes and arranging to meet secretly with her inside a cowslip flower. However, Mab's husband King Oberon grows suspicious. He begins searching for Mab, attacking a wasp at one point when he mistakes it for Pigwiggen, and then generally just bumbling around until he meets Puck. Nymphidia overhears the king and Puck planning to catch Mab, and warns the queen in time for her to hide. Pigwiggen challenges Oberon to a duel for Mab's honor, donning a beetle-head helmet and riding on a mighty earwig. As the duel begins, Mab goes for help to the goddess Proserpina. Proserpina gives all of the men water from the river Lethe to drink, erasing their memory, so that the women are the only ones in the know. Everyone lives happily ever after.

(Loc : Desk, Lower shelf, far left)