A potentially misleading title, this catch is taken from Arne's opera (or more specifically, masque) "The Fairy Prince", itself an adaptation of the by then 160 year old Ben Jonson play, "Oberon, the Faery Prince". The play depicts satyrs and faeries guarding Windsor Castle and that's where the title comes from. In the scene this comes from the two satyrs are making an attempt to awaken two sylvans by tickling their noses with straws.

The song itself appears to have been adopted as a nursery rhyme.

Interestingly the original text makes more sense: "He ate the dormouse, else it was thee".

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"Buz, quoth the blue fly, Hum quoth the bee. Buz and hum they cry, And so do we: In his ear, in his nose, Thus, do you see? He eat the dormouse, Else it was he."