I dress their hemp, I spin their tow. And would me take, I wend me laughing, ho, ho, ho! When house or harth doth sluttish lye, I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw. And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho! When any need to borrowe ought, If to repay, They do delay, Abroad amongst them then I go; I them affright With pinchings, dreames, and ho, ho, ho! When lazie queans have nought to do, But study how to cog and lye; And it disclose, * Canting, dissimulation. To them whom they have wronged so; I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho! When men do traps and engins set In loop holes where the vermine creepe, Who from their foldes and houses, get Their duckes and geese, and lambes and sheepe : And enter in, And seeme a vermine taken so; But when they there, Approach me neare, I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho! And to our By wells and rills, in meadowes greene, We chant Away we fling; And babes new born steal as we go, And elfe in bed, We leave instead And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho! From hag-bred Merlin's time have I Thus nightly revell'd to and fro: And for my pranks men call me by The name of Robin Good-fellow. Fiends, ghosts, and sprites, Who haunt the nightes, The hags and goblins do me know; My feates have told; So, Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho! [This song which is attributed to Ben Jonson, I print from Percy's Reliques, vol. 3, p. 254. [Ed. 1811.] The form of Robin Good-Fellow, Sir Joshua Reynolds has painted for us, his doings are admirably told above.] THE FAIRY QUEEN. Come, follow, follow me, Come follow Mab your queene. When mortals are at rest, Through key-holes we do glide; And, if the house be foul Then we pinch their armes and thighes; But, if the house be swept, Upon a mushroomes head The grasshopper, gnat, and fly, So nimbly do we pass, Where we the night before have been. [Printed from Percy's text. Its author has been well acquainted with the "Robin Goodfellow" in the page before.] CLOUDS AWAY, AND WELCOME DAY. THOMAS HEYWOOD. Born about 1580. Pack clouds away, and welcome day, Wake from thy nest, Robin-red-breast, And from each hill, let music shrill, [From "Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, &c." 1607.] |