Fairy Tales, Now First Collected/Song 5
SONG V.
THE PRANKS OF ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW.
From Oberon, in fairy-land, The king of ghosts and shadows there,Mad Robin I, at his command, Am sent to view the night-sports here; What revel-rout 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 welkin soon,And, in a minutes space, descry Each thing that's done below the moon: There's not a hag, Nor ghost shall wag, Nor cry, Goblin! where I do go; But Robin I Their feats will spy, And fear them home, with ho, ho, ho!
If any wanderers I meet, That from their night-sport do trudge home,With counterfeiting voice I greet, And cause them on with me to roam ;. Through woods, through lakes, Through bogs, through brakes, O'er bush and brier, with them I go, I call upon Them to come on, And wend me laughing, 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 whinny laughing, ho, ho, ho!
When lads and lasses merry be, With possets, and with junkets fine,Unseen of all the company, I eat their cates, and sip their wine; And to make sport, I f—t and snort, And out the candles I do blow; The maids I kiss; They shriek—who's this? I answer nought, but ho, ho, ho!
Yet, now and then, the maids to please, I card, at midnight, up their wool;And, while they sleep, snort, f—t, and fease, With wheel to thread their flax I pull; I grind at mill Their malt up still, I dress their hemp, I spin their tow; If any wake, And would me take, I wend me laughing, ho, ho, ho!
When house or hearth doth sluttish lic, I pinch the maidens black and blue;And from the bed the bed-clothes I Pull off, and lay them nak'd to view; "Twixt sleep and wake, I do them take, And on the 'clay-cold' floor them throw, If out they cry, Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh I, ho, ho, ho!
When any need to borrow ought, We lend them what they do require;And for the use demand we nought; Our own is all we do desire: If to repay They do delay, Abroad amongst them then I go; And night by night I them affright, With pinching, dreams, and ho, ho, ho!
When lazy queans have nought to do, But study how to cog and lie,To make debate, and mischief too, "Twixt one another secretly, I mark their glose, And it disclose To them that they have wronged so; When I have done I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho!
When men do traps and engines set In loop-holes, where the vermin creep,Who from their folds and houses fet Their ducks and geese, and lambs and sheep, I spy the gin, And enter in, And seem a vermin taken so; But, when they there Approach me near, I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho!
By wells, and gills, in meadows green, We nightly dance our hey-day guise ;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, An elf in bed We leave instead, And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!
From hag-bred Merlins 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, That haunt the nights, The hags and goblins, do me know; And beldames old My feats have told; So vale, vale! ho, ho, ho!