Wings from the wind to please her mind,
Notes from the lark I'll borrow;
Bird, prune thy wing; nightingale, sing,

To give my Love good-morrow;
To give my Love good-morrow
Notes from them both I'll borrow.

Wake from thy nest, Robin red-breast,
Sing, birds, in every furrow;
And from each hill, let music shrill
Give my fair Love good-morrow!
Blackbird and thrush, in every bush,
Stare,1 linnet, and cock-sparrow;
You pretty elves,2 amongst yourselves
Sing my fair Love good-morrow;
To give my Love good-morrow
Sing, birds, in every furrow!

34

ROBIN GOODFELLOW.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN-apparently of the 16th century.

FROM Oberon,1 in fairy-land,

The king of ghosts and shadows there,

Mad Robin I, at his command,

stare, starling. 2 elves, fairy-like creatures.
2 Mad Robin, a fairy.

1 Oberon, king of the fairies.

Am sent to view the night-sports here

What revel rout3

Is kept about,

In every corner where I go,
I will o'ersee,

And merry be,

And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho!

More swift than lightning can I fly
About this airy welkin1 soon,

And, in a minute's space, descry
Each thing that's done below the moon.
There's not a hag5

Or ghost shall wag,

Or cry "'Ware goblins!" where I go;
But, Robin, I

Their feats will spy,

And send them home, with ho, ho, ho!

Whene'er such wanderers I meet,
As from their night-sports they trudge home,
With counterfeiting voice I greet,
And call them on with me to roam;

Through woods, through lakes,
Through bogs, through brakes,

3 revel rout, noisy pleasure gatherings. Revel is a riotous or tumultuous feast.

4 airy welkin, the sky, or region of the clouds. Ger. wolkè, a cloud.

5 hag, a witch.

6 counterfeiting, lit., to make the counter, or opposite.

Or else, unseen, with them I go,
All in the nick'

To play some trick,

And frolic it, with ho, ho, ho!

Sometimes I meet them like a man,
Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound;
And to a horse I turn me can,

To trip and trot about them round.
But if to ride,

My back they stride,
More swift than wind away I go,
O'er hedge and lands,

Through pools and ponds,

I hurry, laughing, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and rills, in meadows green,
We nightly dance in heyday guise ; 8
And to our fairy King and Queen,
We chant our moonlight minstrelsies."
When larks 'gin sing,
Away we fling;

And babes new-born steal as we go;

And elf 10 in bed,

We leave instead,

And wend11 us, laughing, ho, ho, ho!

all in the nick, at the proper instant. Ger. nicken, to wink.

8 heyday guise, in jovial, frolicing dress or way.

9 Sing by moonlight.
10 elf, a fairy.

11 wend, lit., to wind, to go off.

From hag-bred Merlin's 12 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 nights,

The hags and goblins do me know;
And beldames 13 old

My feats have told,
So valé, valé !1 ho, ho, ho!

35

MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN.

This excellent philosophic song was famous in the 16th century. It is quoted by Ben Jonson in one of his plays.

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
As far exceeds all earthly bliss

That God or Nature hath assigned.

Though much I want, that most would have,1
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

12 Merlin, a fabled Welsh wizard.
13 beldame, orig., belle dame, fair
lady. Now, an old woman, a hag.

14 vale, Lat., farewell.

1 That most people would like to have.

Content I live: this is my stay;

I

I seek no more than may suffice; press to bear no haughty sway;

But what I lack my mind supplies.
Lo! thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.

I see how plenty surfeits2 oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall:
I see that such as sit aloft

Mishap doth threaten most of all:
These get with toil, and keep with fear:
Such cares my mind could never bear.

No princely pomp, nor wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,

No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to win a lover's eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall,
For why? my mind despiseth all.

Some have too much, yet still they crave,
I little have, yet seek no more;
They are but poor, though much they have;
And I am rich with little store;

They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I lend; they pine, I live.

I laugh not at another's loss,
I grudge not at another's gain:

2 surfeits, cloys, lit., to overdo, as in eating, &c.

F