The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin 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 shaddows there,
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Mad Robin I at his command,
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am sent to view the Night-sports here:
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What Revel Rout,
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Is kept about,
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In every corner where I go;
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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 Ayr welkin soon,
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And in a minutes space discry,
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each thing thats done beneath the Moon:
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Theres not a Hag,
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Nor Ghost shall wag,
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Nor cry Goblin where I do go,
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But Robin I,
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Their feats will spy,
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And fear them home with, ho ho ho.
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If any Wanderers I meet,
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that from their night-sports do trudge home,
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With counterfeiting voice I greet,
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and cause them on with me to rome
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Through woods, through lakes,
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Through bogs through brakes,
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Ore Bush and Bryer with them I go,
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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 Ox, sometimes a Hound,
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And to a Horse I turn 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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My back they stride,
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More swift then wind, away I go,
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Ore hedge and Lands,
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Through Pools and Ponds,
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I whirry laughing, ho ho ho.
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When Lads and Lasses merry be,
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with Possets and with junkets fine,
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Unseen of all the Company,
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I eat their Cakes and drink 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 do blow,
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The Maids I kiss,
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They shriek, whose 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 sleep, snort, fart, and snease,
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with Wheel to thread their Flax I pull:
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I grind at Mill,
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Their Mault up still,
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I dress their hemp, I spin their Tow,
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If any [wa]ke,
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And would me take,
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I wend me laughing, ho ho ho.
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When House or Herth doth fluttish lye,
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I pinch the Maids there black and blew,
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And from the Bed, the Bed-cloaths I,
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pull off and lay them nakd to view:
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Twixt sleep and wake,
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I do them take,
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And on the Key-cold flower them throw,
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If out they cry,
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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 do require,
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And for the use demand we nought,
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our own is all we do desire:
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If to repay,
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They do delay,
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Abroad amongst them then I go,
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And night by night,
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I them affright
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With pinching dreams, and ho ho ho.
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When lazy queans have nought to do,
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but study how to cog and lye;
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To make debate and mischief too,
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twixt one another secretly:
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I mark their glose,
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And it disclose
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To them which they have wronged so:
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When I have done,
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I get me gone,
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And leave them scolding, ho ho ho.
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When men do traps and Engines set
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in loop-holes where the Vermine creep,
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That from their Folds and Houses steal
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their Ducks and Geese, their Lambs & sheep
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I spy the gin,
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And enter in,
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And seems a Vermine taken so;
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But when they there,
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Approach me near,
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I leap out laughing, ho ho ho.
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By Wells and Giles in Meadows green,
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we nightly dance our hay-day guise,
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And to our Fairy King and Queen,
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we chaunt our Moon-light harmonies:
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When Larks gin sing,
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Away we fling,
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And Babes new-born steal as we go:
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An Elf 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 Hay-bred Merlins time have I,
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thus mighty 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 do 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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