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by Michael Drayton
Pub. Date: 1906
Original Pub. Date: 1627
Publisher: George Routledge & Sons, Limited
Format: eBook (PDF), 96pp
Age Range: All
Series: None
ISBN-13: N/A
Jennifer's Review of Nymphidia or The Court of Faery
(There are no spoilers in this review.)
Written in 1627, Nymphidia is a quirky, yet masterful, poetic excursion into fairyland. King Oberon learns that Queen Titania is having a tryst with the Faery knight, Pigwiggin. His fury knows no bounds, but his attempts to take revenge on the lovers are bumbling at best. Nymphidia, one of the queen's maids -- and the "gentle Fay" who, Drayton says, "bewrayed" this tale to him -- learns of the king's approach and plots to spare both Titania and Pigwiggin the humiliation of discovery. Delightful illustrations head each octave, plus there are eight excellent full page photogravures of drawings by Thomas Maybank that perfectly evoke the fey atmosphere. Drayton occasionally stretches for a rhyme (as in "Squirrel"/"perill"), but as is ofttimes the result in the hands of a skilled poet, it is usually more merit than sin. The poem is charming in its recitation of the details of the fairies' lives, and there are many stanzas where Drayton is wonderful:
Written in 1627, Nymphidia is a quirky, yet masterful, poetic excursion into fairyland. King Oberon learns that Queen Titania is having a tryst with the Faery knight, Pigwiggin. His fury knows no bounds, but his attempts to take revenge on the lovers are bumbling at best. Nymphidia, one of the queen's maids -- and the "gentle Fay" who, Drayton says, "bewrayed" this tale to him -- learns of the king's approach and plots to spare both Titania and Pigwiggin the humiliation of discovery. Delightful illustrations head each octave, plus there are eight excellent full page photogravures of drawings by Thomas Maybank that perfectly evoke the fey atmosphere. Drayton occasionally stretches for a rhyme (as in "Squirrel"/"perill"), but as is ofttimes the result in the hands of a skilled poet, it is usually more merit than sin. The poem is charming in its recitation of the details of the fairies' lives, and there are many stanzas where Drayton is wonderful:
She mounts her chariot in a trice,
Nor would she stay, for no advice,
Until her Maydes that were so nice
To wait on her were fitted;
But ranne her self away alone,
Which when they heard, there was not one
But hasted after to be gone,
As she had beene diswitted.
The book is readily available as a free download. I suggest the PDF version from Google Books. The illustrations and text look sharp for the most part, and you have the sense that you're reading an old book.
Nymphidia is a light, fun, and as far as the literary development of the fay is concerned, an essential read.
(Review originally published June 27, 2011, on GoodReads.com.)
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