Of the peddlers the first, his name Kit o Thirske,
Said, We are all content;
Soe eche tooke a stake for his weapon, to make
The peddlers to repent.
20
Soe to it they fell, and their blowes did ring well
Uppon the others backes;
And gave the peddlers cause to wish
They had not cast their packes.
21
Yet the peddlers three of their blowes were so free
That Robin began for to rue;
And Scarlett and John had such loade laide on
It made the sunne looke blue.
22
At last Kits oke caught Robin a stroke
That made his head to sound;
He staggerd, and reelde, till he fell on the fielde,
And the trees with him went round.
23
‘Now holde your handes,’ cride Little John,
And soe said Scarlett eke;
‘Our maister is slaine, I tell you plaine,
He never more will speake.’
24
‘Now, heaven forefend he come to that ende,’
Said Kit, ‘I love him well;
But lett him learne to be wise in turne,
And not with pore peddlers mell.
25
‘In my packe, God wot, I a balsame have got
That soone his hurts will heale;’
And into Robin Hoods gaping mouth
He presentlie powrde some deale.
26
‘Now fare ye well, tis best not to tell
How ye three peddlers met;
Or if ye doe, prithee tell alsoe
How they made ye swinke and swett.’
27
Poore Robin in sound they left on the ground,
And hied them to Nottingham,
While Scarlett and John Robin tended on,
Till at length his senses came.
28
Noe soone[r], in haste, did Robin Hood taste
The balsame he had tane,
Than he gan to spewe, and up he threwe
The balsame all againe.
29
And Scarlett and John, who were looking on
Their maister as he did lie,
Had their faces besmeard, both eies and beard,
Therewith most piteously.
30
Thus ended that fray; soe beware alwaye
How ye doe challenge foes;
Looke well aboute they are not to stoute,
Or you may have worst of the blowes.
138
ROBIN HOOD AND ALLEN A DALE
#a.# ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Douce, II, leaf 185.
#b.# ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Pepys, II, 110, No 97.
#c.# ‘Robin Hood and Allen a Dale,’ Douce, III, 119 b.
Printed in A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, II, 44, and Evans’s Old
Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 126, after a copy very near to #c#. In Ritson’s
Robin Hood, 1795, II, 46, probably after Roxburghe II, 394. Not included
in the garlands of 1663, 1670; in a garland of 1749, the Aldermary
garland, R. Marshall, and the Lichfield, M. Morgan, both not dated, No
8; in the York garland, 1811, No 9. In the Kinloch MSS, V, 183, there is
a copy, derived from the broadside, but Scotticised, and improved in the
process.
A young man, Allen a Dale, whom Robin Hood has seen passing, one day
singing and the next morning sighing, is stopped by Little John and the
Miller’s Son, and brought before their master, who asks him if he has
any money. He has five shillings and a ring, and was to have been
married the day before, but his bride has been given to an old knight.
Robin asks what he will give to get his true-love. All that he can give
is his faithful service. Robin goes to the church and declares the match
not fit: the bride shall choose for herself. He blows his horn, and
four-and-twenty of his men appear, the foremost of whom is Allen a Dale.
Robin tells Allen that he shall be married on the spot. The bishop says
no; there must be three askings. Robin puts the bishop’s coat on Little
John, and Little John asks seven times. Robin gives Allen the maid, and
bids the man take her away that dare.
The ballad, it will be observed, is first found in broadside copies of
the latter half of the seventeenth century. The story is told of
Scarlock in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane MS, 715, 7, fol. 157, of
the end of the sixteenth century; Thoms, Early Prose Romances, II, p.
39.
“Scarlock he induced [to become one of his company] upon this occacion.
One day meting him as he walked solitary and lyke to a man forlorne,
because a mayd to whom he was affyanced was taken from [him] by the
violence of her frends, and given to another, that was auld and welthy;
whereupon Robin, understandyng when the maryage-day should be, came to
the church as a beggar, and having his company not far of, which came in
so sone as they hard the sound of his horne, he ‘took’ the bryde
perforce from him that was in hand to have maryed her, and caused the
preist to wed her and Scarlocke togeyther.”
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 146.
1
Come listen to me, you gallants so free,
All you that loves mirth for to hear,
And I will you tell of a bold outlaw,
That lived in Nottinghamshire. (_bis_.)
2
As Robin Hood in the forrest stood,
All under the green-wood tree,
There was he ware of a brave young man,
As fine as fine might be.
3
The youngster was clothed in scarlet red,
In scarlet fine and gay,
And he did frisk it over the plain,
And chanted a roundelay.
4
As Robin Hood next morning stood,
Amongst the leaves so gay,
There did he espy the same young man
Come drooping along the way.
5
The scarlet he wore the day before,
It was clean cast away;
And every step he fetcht a sigh,
‘Alack and a well a day!’
6
Then stepped forth brave Little John,
And Nick the millers son,
Which made the young man bend his bow,
When as he see them come.
7
‘Stand off, stand off,’ the young man said,
‘What is your will with me?’
‘You must come before our master straight,
Vnder yon green-wood tree.’
8
And when he came bold Robin before,
Robin askt him courteously,
O hast thou any money to spare
For my merry men and me?
9
‘I have no money,’ the young man said,
‘But five shillings and a ring;
And that I have kept this seven long years,
To have it at my wedding.
10
‘Yesterday I should have married a maid,
But she is now from me tane,
And chosen to be an old knights delight,
Whereby my poor heart is slain.’
11
‘What is thy name?’ then said Robin Hood,
‘Come tell me, without any fail:’
‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,
‘My name it is Allin a Dale.’
12
‘What wilt thou give me,’ said Robin Hood,
‘In ready gold or fee,
To help thee to thy true-love again,
And deliver her unto thee?’
13
‘I have no money,’ then quoth the young man,
‘No ready gold nor fee,
But I will swear upon a book
Thy true servant for to be.’
14
‘How many miles is it to thy true-love?
Come tell me without any guile:’
‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,
‘It is but five little mile.’
15
Then Robin he hasted over the plain,
He did neither stint nor lin,
Vntil he came unto the church
Where Allin should keep his wedding.
16
‘What dost thou do here?’ the bishop he said,
‘I prethee now tell to me:’
‘I am a bold harper,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘And the best in the north countrey.’
17
‘O welcome, O welcome,’ the bishop he said,
‘That musick best pleaseth me;’
‘You shall have no musick,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘Till the bride and the bridegroom I see.’
18
With that came in a wealthy knight,
Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass,
Did shine like glistering gold.
19
‘This is no fit match,’ quoth bold Robin Hood,
‘That you do seem to make here;
For since we are come unto the church,
The bride she shall chuse her own dear.’
20
Then Robin Hood put his horn to his mouth,
And blew blasts two or three;
When four and twenty bowmen bold
Came leaping over the lee.
21
And when they came into the church-yard,
Marching all on a row,
The first man was Allin a Dale,
To give bold Robin his bow.
22
‘This is thy true-love,’ Robin he said,
‘Young Allin, as I hear say;
And you shall be married at this same time,
Before we depart away.’
23
‘That shall not be,’ the bishop he said,
‘For thy word shall not stand;
They shall be three times askt in the church,
As the law is of our land.’
24
Robin Hood pulld off the bishops coat,
And put it upon Little John;
‘By the faith of my body,’ then Robin said,
‘This cloath doth make thee a man.’
25
When Little John went into the quire,
The people began for to laugh;
He askt them seven times in the church,
Least three times should not be enough.
26
‘Who gives me this maid,’ then said Little John;
Quoth Robin, That do I,
And he that doth take her from Allin a Dale
Full dearly he shall her buy.
27
And thus having ended this merry wedding,
The bride lookt as fresh as a queen,
And so they returnd to the merry green wood,
Amongst the leaves so green.
* * * * *
#a.#
Robin Hood and Allin of Dale: Or, a pleasant relation how a young
gentleman being in love with a young damsel, which was taken
from him to be an old knight’s bride, and how Robin Hood,
pittying the young mans case, took her from the old knight, when
they were going to be marryed, and restored her to her own true
love again.
Bold Robin Hood he did the young man right,
And took the damsel from the doteing knight.
To a pleasant northern tune, or, Robin Hood in the green wood
stood.
With allowance. Printed for F. Cole, T. Vere, J. Wright and J.
Clarke. (Coles, Vere and Wright, 1655–80, J. Clarke, 1650–82:
_Chappell_.)
11^4. Alllin.
18^1. wealhty.
22^3. marrid.
#b.#
_Title, etc., as in_ #a#.
With allowance. Printed for Alex. Milbourn, in Green-Arbor-Court,
in the Little-Old-Baily. (Alexander Milbourne 1670–97:
_Chappell_.)
1^3. tell you.
2^3. he was aware.
10^2. she was from me tane.
16^1. dost thou here.
16^2. unto.
18^4. like the.
19^1. not a fit: qd.
25^2. for _wanting_.
26^1. then _wanting_.
26^3. And _wanting_.
27^1. having ende of.
27^2. lookt like a.
#c.#
Robin Hood and Allen a Dale: Or, the manner of Robin Hood’s
rescuing a young lady from an old knight to whom she was going
to be married, and restoring her to Allen a Dale, her former
love.
To the tune of Robin Hood in the green wood.
_No printer._ Sold in Bow-Church-Yard, London.
1^3. tell you.
2^3. aware.
4^3. spy.
5^2. quite _for_ clean.
6^2. Midge _for_ Nick.
9^3. these seven.
10^2. she was from me taen.
11^2. any _wanting_.
13^4. for _wanting_.
16^1. do _wanting_: then _for_ he.
16^2. unto me.
17^1. then _for_ he.
18^4. Who shone like the glittering.
19^1. not a fit.
19^4. she _wanting_.
22^3. at the.
24^3. Robin he.
24^4. This coat.
25^1. to _for_ into.
25^2. for _wanting_.
26^1. me _wanting_: maid, says.
27^2. bride she lookd like a.
139
ROBIN HOOD’S PROGRESS TO NOTTINGHAM
#a.# Wood, 402, leaf 14 b. #b.# Wood, 401, leaf 37 b. #c.# Garland of
1663, No 2. #d.# Garland of 1670, No 1. #e.# Pepys, II, 104, No 92.
This piece occurs also in the Roxburghe Ballads, III, 270, 845, the
Douce, III, 120, was among Heber’s ballads (a copy by W. Onley), and is
probably in all collections of broadsides.
#a# or #b# was printed by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 12. A copy in
Evans’s Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 96, is later, and very like Douce,
III, 120.
When Robin Hood is but fifteen years of age, he falls in with fifteen
foresters who are drinking together at Nottingham. They hear with scorn
that he intends to take part in a shooting-match. He wagers with them
that he will kill a hart at a hundred rod, and does this. They refuse to
pay, and bid him begone if he would save his sides from a basting. Robin
kills them all with his bow; people come out from Nottingham to take
him, but get very much hurt. Robin goes to the green wood; the townsmen
bury the foresters.
This is evidently a comparatively late ballad, but has not come down to
us in its oldest form. The story is told to the following effect in the
life of Robin Hood in Sloane MS. 715, 7, fol. 157, written, as it seems,
says Ritson, towards the end of the sixteenth century. Robin Hood, going
into a forest with a bow of extraordinary strength, fell in with some
rangers, or woodmen, who gibed at him for pretending to use a bow such
as no man could shoot with. Robin said that he had two better, and that
the one he had with him was only a “birding-bow”; nevertheless he would
lay his head against a certain sum of money that he would kill a deer
with it at a great distance. When the chance offered, one of the rangers
sought to disconcert him by reminding him that he would lose his head if
he missed his mark. Robin won the wager, and gave every man his money
back except the one who had tried to fluster him. A quarrel followed,
which ended with Robin’s killing them all, and consequently betaking
himself to life in the woods. Thoms, Early Prose Romances, II, Robin
Hood, 37 ff.
Douce notes in his copy of Ritson’s Robin Hood (Bodleian Library) the
second stanza of this ballad as it is cited in the Duke of Newcastle’s
play, ‘The Varietie’:
When Robin came to Nottingham,
His dinner all for to dine,
There met him fifteen jolly foresters,
Were drinking ale and wine.
Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 123.
Translated by A. Grün, p. 61; Doenniges, p. 170.
1
Robin Hood hee was and a tall young man,
Derry derry down
And fifteen winters old,
And Robin Hood he was a proper young man,
Of courage stout and bold.
Hey down derry derry down
2
Robin Hood he would and to fair Nottingham,
With the general for to dine;
There was he ware of fifteen forresters,
And a drinking bear, ale, and wine.
3
‘What news? What news?’ said bold Robin Hood;
‘What news, fain wouldest thou know?
Our king hath provided a shooting-match:’
‘And I’m ready with my bow.’
4
‘We hold it in scorn,’ then said the forresters,
‘That ever a boy so young
Should bear a bow before our king,
That’s not able to draw one string.’
5
‘I’le hold you twenty marks,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘By the leave of Our Lady,
That I’le hit a mark a hundred rod,
And I’le cause a hart to dye.’
6
‘We’l hold you twenty mark,’ then said the forresters,
‘By the leave of Our Lady,
Thou hitst not the marke a hundred rod,
Nor causest a hart to dye.’
7
Robin Hood he bent up a noble bow,
And a broad arrow he let flye,
He hit the mark a hundred rod,
And he caused a hart to dy.
8
Some said hee brake ribs one or two,
And some said hee brake three;
The arrow within the hart would not abide,
But it glanced in two or three.
9
The hart did skip, and the hart did leap,
And the hart lay on the ground;
‘The wager is mine,’ said bold Robin Hood,
‘If ’twere for a thousand pound.’
10
‘The wager’s none of thine,’ then said the forresters,
‘Although thou beest in haste;
Take up thy bow, and get thee hence,
Lest wee thy sides do baste.’
11
Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And his broad arrows all amain,
And Robin Hood he laught, and begun to smile,
As hee went over the plain.
12
Then Robin Hood hee bent his noble bow,
And his broad arrows he let flye,
Till fourteen of these fifteen forresters
Vpon the ground did lye.
13
He that did this quarrel first begin
Went tripping over the plain;
But Robin Hood he bent his noble bow,
And hee fetcht him back again.
14
‘You said I was no archer,’ said Robin Hood,
‘But say so now again;’
With that he sent another arrow
That split his head in twain.
15
‘You have found mee an archer,’ saith Robin Hood,
‘Which will make your wives for to wring,
And wish that you had never spoke the word,
That I could not draw one string.’
16
The people that lived in fair Nottingham
Came runing out amain,
Supposing to have taken bold Robin Hood,
With the forresters that were slain.
17
Some lost legs, and some lost arms,
And some did lose their blood,
But Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And is gone to the merry green wood.
18
They carryed these forresters into fair Nottingham,
As many there did know;
They digd them graves in their church-yard,
And they buried them all a row.
* * * * *
#a#, #b#.
Robin Hoods Progresse to Nottingham,
Where hee met with fifteen forresters, all on a row,
And hee desired of them some news for to know,
But with crosse graind words they did him thwart,
For which at last hee made them smart.
To the tune of Bold Robin Hood.
#a.#
London, Printed for Fran. Grove. And entred according to order.
(1620–55: _Chappell._)
#b.#
London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. (1655–80:
_Chappell._)
_3. Commonly punctuated as if spoken entirely by Robin. There
would certainly be an antecedent probability against three
speeches in one stanza, in an older ballad._
#c#, #d#.
Robin Hoods Progress to Notingham, where he slew fifteen
Forresters. To the tune of Bold Robin Hood.
#c.#
6^3. an.
7^3. a mark.
15^3. spake.
#d.#
7^3. an hundred.
11^3. began.
12^3. of the.
14^2. say you so.
14^3. he another arrnw let fly.
18^1. to fair.
#e.#
_Title as in #a#, #b#, above, with these variations in the verse_:
2, news to. 3, And with. 4, them for to.
Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger. (1670–82?)
1^1. and _wanting_.
2^1. would unto.
2^3. aware.
4^1. scorn said bold R. Hood.
5^3. the mark an.
5^4, 7^4. one hart.
6^1. marks.
6^3. That thou: an.
7^3. an.
8^2. some say.
8^3. in _for_ within.
11^2. all _wanting_.
11^3. began.
14^4. Which split.
15^1. said.
15^2. for _wanting_.
15^3. wish you ne’r had.
17^3. R. Hood he bent.
18^3. yards.
18^4. all on a row.
140
ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THREE SQUIRES
#A.# Percy MS., p. 5; Hales and Furnivall, I, 13; Jamieson’s Popular
Ballads, II, 49.
#B. a.# ‘Robin Hood rescuing the Widow’s Three Sons from the Sheriff,
when going to be executed,’ The English Archer, York, N. Nickson, n.
d. #b.# The English Archer, Paisley, John Neilson, 1786. #c.#
Adventures of ... Robin Hood, Falkirk, T. Johnston, 1808. All in the
Bodleian Library, Douce, F.F. 71.
#C.# ‘Robin Hood rescuing the Three Squires from Nottingham Gallows.’
#a.# Robin Hood’s Garland, London, Printed by W. & C. Dicey, n. d.
#b.# R. H.’s Garland, London, L. How, in Peticoat Lane, n. d. #c.#
R. H.’s Garland, York, T. Wilson and R. Spence, n. d. #d.# R. H.’s
Garland, Preston, W. Sergent, n. d. #e.# R. H.’s Garland, London, J.
Marshall & Co., n. d. #f.# R. H.’s Garland, Wolverhampton, J. Smart,
n. d. #a-d#, Douce, FF. 71, #f#, Douce, Add. 262, Bodleian Library.
#B# is given by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 151, “from the York
edition of Robin Hood’s garland;” #C#, the same, II, 216, from an
Aldermary Churchyard garland, and by Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I,
215.
#B.# Robin Hood, while on his way to Nottingham, meets an old woman who
is weeping for three squires condemned to die that day, not for
recognized crimes, but for killing the king’s deer. These seem to be his
own men: st. 6. Pursuing his way, he meets an old “palmer,” really a
beggar, who confirms the bad news. He changes clothes with the palmer
(who at first thinks the proposal a mock), and at Nottingham comes upon
the sheriff, and asks what he will give an old fellow to be his hangman.
The sheriff offers suits and pence; Robin says, hangmen be cursed, he
will never take to that business. He has a horn in his pocket which
would blow the sheriff little good; the sheriff bids him blow his fill.
The first blast brings a hundred and fifty of Robin’s men; the second
brings three score more. They free their own men and hang the sheriff.
In #C# the three squires are expressly said to be the woman’s sons;[114]
for the palmer we have a beggar; Robin asks it as a boon that he may be
hangman, and will have nothing for his service but three blasts on his
horn, ‘that their souls to heaven may flee.’ The horn brings a hundred
and ten men, and the sheriff surrenders the three squires.
In the fragment #A#, Robin changes clothes with an old man, who appears
by stanza 11 to be a beggar. His men are with him meanwhile, and he
orders them to conceal themselves in a wood until they hear his horn. A
blast brings three hundred of them; Robin casts off his beggar’s gear
and stands in his red velvet doublet;[115] his men bend their bows and
beset the gallows. The sheriff throws up his hands and begs for terms;
Robin demands the three squires. The sheriff objects, for they are the
king’s felons; Robin will have them, or the sheriff shall be the first
man to flower the tree.
‘Robin Hood and the Beggar,’ No 133, from stanza 16, is another version
of this ballad. Robin changes clothes with a beggar, after a hard fight
in which he has had the worse, goes to Nottingham, and hears that three
brothers are condemned to die. He hies to the sheriff to plead for them;
a gentleman at the door tells him they must be hanged for deer-stealing
clearly proved. At the gallows Robin blows his horn; a hundred archers
present themselves, and ask his will. He commands them to shoot east and
west and spare no man. The sheriff and his men, all that are not laid
low, fly, and the three brothers, who have already shown their quality,
are added to Robin’s company.
A Scottish version of #B#, derived from the English, is given in an
appendix. It occurs in Kinloch MSS, V, 288, and may be as old as the
York garland used by Ritson, or older.
Ritson was informed by his friend Edward Williams, the Welsh bard, that
#C# and its tune were well known in South Wales by the name of Marchog
Glas, or Green Knight. As to the tune, says Dr Rimbault, it is not to be
found in the collections of Welsh airs, nor was _his_ friend John Parry,
then representing the Welsh bards, able to give any account of it.
Nothing further is said by Rimbault, either way, of the ballad.
#B# 6, in which Robin reminds the old woman that she had once given him
to sup and dine, implicitly as a reason for his exerting himself in
behalf of the three squires (who, according to the title of the ballad,
but not the text, are her three sons), looks like a reminiscence of st.
9 of R. H. and the Bishop, No 143, where an old woman shows her
gratitude to Robin Hood for having given her shoes and hose, and may not
originally have belonged here.[C]
#B# 1, #A# 9^{1,2}, 11^{3,4}, #B# 25, 28^{1,2} are almost repetitions of
Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar, #A# 1, #A# 4^{3,4}, 12^{3,4}, #B# 26,
28^{1,2}.[116]
The rescue in the ballad is introduced into Anthony Munday’s play of The
Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, Act II, Scene 2. Scarlet and
Scathlock, sons of Widow Scarlet, are to be hanged. Friar Tuck attends
them as confessor. Robin Hood, disguised as an old man, pretends that
they have killed his son, and asks the sheriff that they may be
delivered to him for revenge. The sheriff allows them to be unbound.
Robin, for a feigned reason, blows his horn; Little John and Much come
in and begin a fight; Friar Tuck, pretending to help the sheriff, knocks
down his men; the sheriff and his men run away. (Dodsley’s Old Plays,
ed. Hazlitt, VIII, 134–41.)
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1832, II, 155, suggests that the circumstance of
Robin’s changing clothes with the palmer may possibly be taken from “the
noble history of Ponthus of Galyce,” printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1511,
and cites this passage, which resembles the narrative in #B# 8, 10, 11:
“And as he [Ponthus] rode, he met with a poore palmer, beggynge his
brede, the whiche had his gowne all to-clouted and an olde pylled hatte:
so he alyght, and sayd to the palmer, frende, we shall make a chaunge of
all our garmentes, for ye shall have my gowne and I shall have yours and
your hatte. A, syr, sayd the palmer, ye bourde you with me. In good
fayth, sayd Ponthus, I do not; so he dyspoyled hym and cladde hym with
all his rayment, and he put vpon hym the poore mannes gowne, his
gyrdell, his hosyn, his shone, his hatte and his bourden.”
This noble history is taken from one in French which is merely the
romance of Horn turned into prose, and it is also possible that the
passage in the English ballad may be derived from some version of Hind
Horn: see No 17.
Wallace changes clothes with a beggar in ‘Gude Wallace,’ No 157, #F#,
#G#, where there is a general likeness to this ballad of Robin Hood. It
may be noted that Wulric the Heron, one of the comrades of Hereward,
rescues four brothers who were about to be hanged, killing some of their
common enemies: Michel, Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, II, 51.
#B# is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 135, Doenniges, p. 135, Knortz
L. u. R. Altenglands, No 19; combined with #C#, by Talvj,
Charakteristik, p. 489.
A
* * * * *
1
‘. . . . . . .
In faith thou shal[t] haue mine,
And twenty pound in thy purse,
To spend att ale and wine.’
2
‘Though yo_u_r clothes are of light Lincolne green,
And mine gray russett and torne,
Yet it doth not you beseeme
To doe an old man scorne.’
3
‘I scorne thee not, old man,’ says Robin,
‘By the faith of my body;
Doe of thy clothes, thou shalt haue mine,
For it may noe better bee.’
4
But Robin did on this old mans hose,
The were torne in the wrist;
‘When I looke on my leggs,’ said Robin,
‘Then for to laugh I list.’
5
But Robin did on the old mans shooes,
And the were cliitt full cleane;
‘Now, by my faith,’ sayes Litle Iohn,
‘These are good for thornës keene.’
6
But Robin did on the old mans cloake,
And it was torne in the necke;
‘Now, by my faith,’ said William Scarlett,
‘Heere shold be set a specke.’
7
But Robin did on this old mans hood,
Itt gogled on his crowne;
‘When I come into Nottingham,’ said Robin,
‘My hood it will lightly downe.
8
‘But yonder is an outwood,’ said Robin,
‘An outwood all and a shade,
And thither I reede you, my merrymen all,
The ready way to take.
9
‘And when you heare my litle horne blow,
Come raking all on a rowte
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
* * * * *