THE
Mad Merry PRANKS of ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW.
To the Tune of, Dulcina, etc.
Licens'd according to Order.
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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 o'resee,
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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 than Lightning can I flye,
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and round about this Air welkin soon,
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And in a Minute's space discry,
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each thing that's done beneath the Moon:
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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 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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[t]hat from their Night-sport do trudge home,
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With counterfeting 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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O're Bush and Bryer with them I go,
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I call upon
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Tem [t]o come on,
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And wend me laughing, Ho, ho, ho.
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Sometimes I meet them like 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 strided
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More swift than wind aways go,
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O're Hedge and L I
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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 Malt up still,
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I dress their Hemp, I spin their Tow;
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If any awake,
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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 sluttish 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 nak'd to view:
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sleep and wake,
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I do them take,
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And on the key-cold Floor 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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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 scoulding, Ho, ho, ho.
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When Men do Traps and Engines set,
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in Loop-holes where the Vermin creep,
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That from their Folds and Houses steal
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their duckes and geese, their lambs and sheep
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I spy the Gin,
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And enter in,
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And s[e]ems a Vermin 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 Whiles 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 instead,
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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 revell'd 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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