> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# In Shakespeare's Cymbeline there are these lines:
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-pese-shekspira-tsimbelin-est-takie-stroki/
- Published: 2019-06-26T06:39:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T09:28:57.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Books, London, Mores, Ethnography

Yes, he has fallen asleep  
In the last, eternal, unwaking sleep.  
I shall make a coffin his bed,  
Fairies will gather at his grave  
And no worm will dare creep into it.

*Literal translation*

Indeed, in ancient Britain there was a belief that fairies take particular care of young corpses and, attending their graves, slow the process of decay, for where fairies swarm there are no venomous creatures.

The Christian faith, however, explained the phenomenon of incorrupt young bodies by their holiness: thus the fairies, all toiling tirelessly in the churchyard, were replaced by a single god and his will.