The mad-merry prankes of Robbin Good-fellow.
To the tune of Dulcina.
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FRom Obrion in Fairy Land
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the King of Ghosts and shadowes there,
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[M]ad Robin I at his command,
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am sent to view the night-sports here.
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What revell rout
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Is kept about
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[In] every corner where I goe,
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I will ore see,
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And merry be,
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And make good sport with ho ho ho.
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More swift then lightning can I flye,
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and round about this ayrie welkin soone,
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And in a minutes space descry
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each thing that's done beneath the Moone:
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There's not a Hag
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Nor Ghost shall wag,
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[Nor] cry Goblin where I doe goe,
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But Robin I
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[Th]eir feates will spye
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[And feare] them home with ho ho ho.
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[If any wan]derers I meet
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[that from t]heir night sports doe trudge home
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[With counter]faiting voyce I greet,
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[and cause t]hem on with me to roame
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[Through] woods, through lakes,
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[Through] bogs, through brakes
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[Ore bush and brier] with them I goe,
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[I call upon]
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[Them to come on]
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[And wend me laughing ho] ho ho
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Sometimes I meet them like a man,
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sometimes an oxe, sometimes a hound,
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And to a horse I turne me can,
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to trip and trot about them round.
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But if to ride
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Me backe they stride,
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More swift then winde away I goe,
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Ore hedge and lands,
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Through pooles and ponds,
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I whirry laughing ho ho ho.
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When Ladds and Lasses merry be,
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With possets and with junkets fine,
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Unseene of all the Company,
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I eate their cates and sip their wine:
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and to make sport.
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I fart and snort,
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And out the candles I doe blow,
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The maids I kisse,
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They shrieke who's this
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I answer nought but ho ho ho.
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Yet now and then the maids to please,
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I card at midnight up their wool:
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And while they sleepe, snort, fart, and fease,
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with wheele to threds their flaxe I pull:
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I grind at Mill
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Their Malt up still.
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I dresse their hemp, I spin their towe
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If any wake,
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And would me take,
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I wend me laughing ho ho ho.
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The second prat. To the same tune.
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WHen house or harth doth sluttish lie,
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I pinch the maids there blacke and blew
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And from the bed the bed-cloathes I
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pull off, and lay them naked to view:
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twixt sleepe, and wake
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I doe them take
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And on the key cold floore them throw,
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If out they crie
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Then forth flye I,
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And loudly laugh ho ho ho.
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When any need to borrow ought,
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we lend them what they doe require,
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And for the use demaund we nought,
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our owne is all we doe desire:
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If to repay
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They doe delay
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Abroad amongst them then I goe,
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And night by night
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I them affright
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With pinching, dreames, and ho ho ho.
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When lazie queenes have nought to doe,
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but study how to cogge and lie,
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To make debate and mischiefe too
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twixt one another secretly:
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I marke their glose
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And doe disclose
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To them that they had wronged so,
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When I have done
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I get me gone
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And leaue them scolding ho ho ho.
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When men doe traps and engins set
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in loope-holes where the vermine creepe,
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That from their foulds and houses set
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their ducks and geese, their lambs a[nd sheepe],
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I spy the gin
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And enter in,
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And seemes a vermin taken so:
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But when they there
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approach me neare
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I leape out laughing ho ho ho.
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By Wels and Gils in medowes greene
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we nightly dance our heyday guise,
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And to our fairy king and queene
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we chant our Moone-light harmonies
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When Larkes gin sing
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Away we fling,
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And babes new borne steale as we goe
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An elfe in bed
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We leave in stead,
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And wend us laughing ho ho ho.
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From Hag-bred Merlins time have I
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thus nightly reveld to and fro:
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And for my pranks men call me by
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the name of Robin Good-Fellow:
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Fiends, ghosts, and sprites
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That haunt the nights,
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The Hags and Goblins doe me know
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And Beldams old
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My feats have told,
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So Vale, Vale, ho ho ho.
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FINIS
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