THE ROMANCE OF THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE

Then would he go laughing ho, ho, hoh! as his use was. Thus would he continually practise himself in honest mirth, never doing hurt to any that were cleanly and honest-minded.

HOW THE FAIRIES CALLED ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW TO DANCE WITH THEM, AND HOW THEY SHOWED HIM THEIR SEVERAL CONDITIONS

Robin Good-fellow being walking one night heard the excellent music of Tom Thumb's brave bag-pipe: he remembering the sound (according to the command of King Obreon) went towards them. They, for joy that he was come, did circle him in, and in a ring did dance round about him. Robin Good-fellow, seeing their love to him, danced in the midst of them, and sung them this song to the tune of To him Bun.

Round about, little ones, quick and nimble,

In and out wheel about, run, hop, or amble.

Join your hands lovingly: well done, musician!

Mirth keepeth man in health like a physician.

Elves, urchins, goblins all, and little fairies

That do filch, black, and pinch maids of the dairies;

Make a ring on the grass with your quick measures,

Tom shall play, and I'll sing for all your pleasures.

Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim,

Go you together,

For you can change your shapes

Like to the weather.

Sib and Tib, Lick and Lull,

You all have tricks, too;

Little Tom Thumb that pipes

Shall go betwixt you.

Tom, tickle up thy pipes

Till they be weary:

I will laugh, ho, ho, hoh!

And make me merry.

Make a ring on this grass

With your quick measures:

Tom shall play, I will sing

For all your pleasures.

The moon shines fair and bright,

And the owl hollos,

Mortals now take their rests

Upon their pillows:

The bat's abroad likewise,

And the night-raven,

Which doth use for to call

Men to Death's haven.

Now the mice peep abroad,

And the cats take them,

Now do young wenches sleep,

Till their dreams wake them.

Make a ring on the grass

With your quick measures:

Tom shall play, I will sing

For all your pleasures.

Thus danced they a good space: at last they left and sat down upon the grass; and to requite Robin Good-fellow's kindness, they promised to tell to him all the exploits that they were accustomed to do: Robin thanked them and listened to them, and one began to tell his tricks in this manner.

"After that we have danced in this manner as you have beheld, I, that am called Pinch, do go about from house to house: sometimes I find the doors of the house open; that negligent servant that left them so, I do so nip him or her, that with my pinches their bodies are as many colours as a mackerel's back. Then take I them, and lay I them in the door, naked or unnaked I care not whether: there they lie, many times till broad day, ere they waken; and many times, against their wills, they show some parts about them, that they would not have openly seen.

"Sometimes I find a slut sleeping in the chimney-corner, when she should be washing of her dishes, or doing something else which she hath left undone: her I pinch about the arms, for not laying her arms to her labour. Some I find in their bed snorting and sleeping, and their houses lying as clean as a nasty dog's kennel; in one corner bones, in another egg-shells, behind the door a heap of dust, the dishes under feet, and the cat in the cupboard: all these sluttish tricks I do reward with blue legs, and blue arms. I find some slovens too, as well as sluts: they pay for their beastliness too, as well as the women-kind; for if they uncase a sloven and not untie their points, I so pay their arms that they cannot sometimes untie them, if they would. Those that leave foul shoes, or go into their beds with their stockings on, I use them as I did the former, and never leave them till they have left their beastliness.

But to the good I do no harm,

But cover them and keep them warm:

Sluts and slovens I do pinch,

And make them in their beds to winch

This is my practice, and my trade;

Many have I cleanly made."

"About midnight do I walk, and for the tricks I play they call me Patch. When I find a slut asleep, I smutch her face if it be clean; but if it be dirty, I wash it in the next piss pot that I can find: the balls I use to wash such sluts withal is a sow's pancake or a pilgrim's salve. Those that I find with their heads nitty and scabby, for want of combing, I am their barbers, and cut their hair as close as an ape's tail; or else clap so much pitch on it, that they must cut it off themselves to their great shame. Slovens also that neglect their masters' business, they do not escape. Some I find that spoil their masters' horses for want of currying: those I do daub with grease and soot, that they are fain to curry themselves ere they can get clean. Others that for laziness will give the poor beasts no meat, I oftentimes so punish them with blows, that they cannot feed themselves they are so sore.

Thus many tricks I Patch can do,

But to the good I ne'er was foe:

The bad I hate and will do ever,

Till they from ill themselves do sever.

To help the good I'll run and go,

The bad no good from me shall know."

"When mortals keep their beds I walk abroad, and for my pranks am called by the name of Gull. I with a feigned voice do often deceive many men, to their great amazement. Many times I get on men and women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause there great pain, for which they call me by the name of Hag, or Nightmare. 'Tis I that do steal children, and in the place of them leave changelings. Sometimes I also steal milk and cream, and then with my brothers, Patch, Pinch, and Grim, and sisters Sib, Tib, Lick, and Lull, I feast with my stolen goods: our little piper hath his share in all our spoils, but he nor our women fairies do ever put themselves in danger to do any great exploit.

What Gull can do, I have you shown;

I am inferior unto none.

Command me, Robin, thou shalt know,

That I for thee will ride or go:

I can do greater things than these

Upon the land, and on the seas."

"I walk with the owl, and make many to cry as loud as she doth hollo. Sometimes I do affright many simple people, for which some have termed me the Black Dog of Newgate. At the meetings of young men and maids I many times am, and when they are in the midst of all their good cheer, I come in, in some fearful shape, and affright them, and then carry away their good cheer, and eat it with my fellow fairies. 'Tis I that do, like a screech-owl cry at sick men's windows, which makes the hearers so fearful, that they say, that the sick person cannot live. Many other ways have I to fright the simple, but the understanding man I cannot move to fear, because he knows I have no power to do hurt.

My nightly business I have told,

To play these tricks I use of old:

When candles burn both blue and dim,

Old folk will say, Here's fairy Grim.

More tricks than these I use to do:

Hereat cried Robin, Ho, ho, hoh!"

"To walk nightly, as do the men fairies, we use not; but now and then we go together, and at good housewives' fires we warm and dress our fairy children. If we find clean water and clean towels, we leave them money, either in their basins or in their shoes; but if we find no clean water in their houses, we wash our children in their pottage, milk, or beer, or whate'er we find: for the sluts that leave not such things fitting, we wash their faces and hands with a gilded child's clout, or else carry them to some river, and duck them over head and ears. We often use to dwell in some great hill, and from thence we do lend money to any poor man or woman that hath need; but if they bring it not again at the day appointed, we do not only punish them with pinching, but also in their goods, so that they never thrive till they have paid us.

Tib and I the chiefest are,

And for all things do take care.

Lick is cook and dresseth meat,

And fetcheth all things that we eat:

Lull is nurse and tends the cradle,

And the babes doth dress and swaddle.

This little fellow, called Tom Thumb,

That is no bigger than a plum,

He is the porter to our gate,

For he doth let all in thereat,

And makes us merry with his play,

And merrily we spend the day."

My actions all in volumes two are wrote,

The least of which will never be forgot.

He had no sooner ended his two lines, but a shepherd (that was watching in the field all night) blew up a bag-pipe: this so frightened Tom, that he could not tell what to do for the present time. The fairies seeing Tom Thumb in such a fear, punished the shepherd with his pipes' loss, so that the shepherd's pipe presently brake in his hand, to his great amazement. Hereat did Robin Good-fellow laugh, ho, ho, hoh! Morning being come, they all hasted to Fairy Land, where I think they yet remain.

My hostess asked me how I liked this tale? I said, it was long enough, and good enough to pass time that might be worser spent. I, seeing her dry, called for two pots: she emptied one of them at a draught, and never breathed for the matter: I emptied the other at leisure; and being late I went to bed, and did dream of this which I had heard.

THE ROMANCE OF THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE

As I me went this endris ^[1] day,

Full fast in mind making my moan,

In a merry morning of May

By Huntlie banks myself alone,

I heard the jay and the throstle-cock;

The mavis meaned ^[2] her of her song;

The woodwale berèd ^[3] as a bell,

That all the wood about me rong.

Alone in longing thus as I lay

Underneath a seemly tree,

Saw I where a lady gay

Came riding over a longè lea.

If I should sit to Doomèsday

With my tongue to wrable and wry ^[4],

Certainly that lady gay

Never be she described for me!

Her palfrey was a dapple-gray,^[5]

Swilk ^[6] one ne saw I never none;

As does the sun on summer's day,

That fair lady herself she shone.

Her saddle it was of roelle-bone ^[7];

Full seemly was that sight to see!

Stiffly set with precious stone

And compast all with crapotee ^[8]—

Stones of Orient great plenty;

Her hair about her head it hang;

She rode over that longè lea;

A while she blew, another she sang.

Her girths of noble silk they were;

The buckles were of beryl-stone;

Her stirrups were of crystal clear,

And all with pearl overbegone ^[9];

Her paytrell ^[10] was of iral-stone;

Her crupper was of orpharè ^[11];

And as clear gold her bridle shone;

On either side hang bellès three.

She led three grew-hounds in a leash,

And seven raches ^[12] by her they ran;

She bare an horn about her halse ^[13],

And under/her belt full many a flane ^[14].

Thomas lay and saw that sight

Underneath a seemly tree.

He said "Yon is Mary most of might,^[15]

That bare that child that died for me.

But-if ^[16] I speak with yon lady bright,

I hope my heart will break in three!

Now shall I go with all my might

Her for to meet at Eildon tree ^[17]."

Thomas rathely ^[18] up he rase,

And he ran over that mountain high;

If it be as the story says,

Her he met at Eildon tree.

He kneelèd down upon his knee,

Underneath that greenwood spray,

And said "Lovely lady, rue on me,

Queen of heaven, as thou well may!"

Then spake that lady mild of thought,

"Thomas, let such wordès be;

Queen of heaven ne am I nought,

For I took never so high degree.

But I am of another country,

If I be 'parelled most of price;

I ride after these wildè fee ^[19];

My raches runnès at my device."

"If thou be 'parelled most of price,

And here rides thus in thy folly,

Of love, lady, as thou art wise,

Thou give me leave to lie thee by!"

She said "Thou man, that were folly;

I pray thee, Thomas, thou let me be;

For I say thee full sekerly ^[20],

That sin will fordo all my beauty,"

"Now, lovely lady, rue on me,

And I will evermore with thee dwell;

Here my troth I will plight to thee,

Whether thou wilt in heaven or hell."

"Man of mould, thou wilt me mar;

But yet thou shalt have all thy will;

And, trow it well, thou 'chievest the ware ^[21],

For all my beauty wilt thou spill."

Down then light that lady bright

Underneath that greenwood spray.

And, as the story tells full right,

Seven times by her he lay.

She said "Man, thee likes thy play;

What byrde ^[22] in bower may deal with thee?

Thou marrest me all this longè day;

I pray thee, Thomas, let me be!"

Thomas stood up in that stead ^[23],

And he beheld that lady gay;

Her hair it hang all over her head;

Her eyne were out, that ere were gray;

And all the rich clothing was away

That he before saw in that stead;

Her one shank black, her other gray,

And all her body like the lead.

Then said Thomas "Alas, alas!

In faith this is a duleful ^[24] sight;

How art thou faded thus in the face,

100

That shone before as the sun so bright!"

She said, "Thomas, take leave at sun and moon,

And also at leaf that grows on tree;

This twelvemonth shalt thou with me gone ^[25],

And Middle-earth ^[26] shalt thou none see."

105

He kneelèd down upon his knee,

Underneath that greenwood spray,

And said "Lovely lady ^[27], rue on me,

Mild queen of heaven, as thou best may!

Alas!" he said, "and woe is me!

110

I trow my deeds will work me care;

My soul, Jesu, beteach ^[28] I thee,

Whithersoever my bones shall fare."

She led him in at Eildon hill

Underneath a dernè ^[29] lea,

115

Where it was dark as midnight mirk,

And ever the water till his knee.

The mountenance ^[30] of dayès three

He heard but swoughing of the flood;

At the last he said "Full woe is me!

120

Almost I die for fault of food."

She led him intill a fair herbere ^[31]

Where fruit was growing great plenty;

Pear and apple, both ripe they were,

The date, and also the damasee,

125

The fig, and also the wine-berry;

The nightègales bigging ^[32] on their nest;

The papejoys ^[33] fast about gan fly,

And throstles sang, would have no rest.

He pressed to pull fruit with his hand,

130

As man for food that was near faint.

She said "Thomas, thou let them stand,^[34]

Or else the fiend thee will attaint!

If thou it pluck, soothly to say,

Thy soul goes to the fire of hell;

135

It comes never out or Doomèsday,

But there in pain aye for to dwell.

Thomas, soothly, I thee hight ^[35],

Come lay thy head down on my knee,

And thou shalt see the fairest sight

140

That ever saw man of thy country."

He did in hight ^[36] as she him bade;

Upon her knee his head he laid,

For her to pay ^[37] he was full glad,

And then that lady to him said:

145

"Seest thou ^[38] now yon fair ^[39] way,

That lieth over yon high mountain?

Yon is the way to heaven for aye

When sinful souls are past their pain.

Seest thou now yon other way,

150

That lieth low beneath yon rise ^[40]?

Yon is the way, thee sooth to say,

Unto the joy of Paradise.

Seest thou yet yon thirdè way,

That lieth under yon greenè plain?

155

Yon is the way, with teen and tray ^[41],

Where sinful soulès suffer their pain.

But seest thou now yon fourthè way,

That lieth over yon deepè dell?

Yon is the way, so wellaway!

160

Unto the burning fire of hell.

Seest thou yet yon fair castel,

That standeth over yon highè hill?

Of town and tower it bears the bell,

In earth is none like it untill.

165

For sooth, Thomas, yon is mine own,

And the king's of this country;

But me were lever ^[42] be hanged and drawn

Or that ^[43] he wist thou lay me by.

When thou com'st to yon castle gay,

170

I pray thee courteous man to be,

And whatso any man to thee say,

Look thou answer none but me.

My lord is servèd at each mess

With thirty knightès fair and free;

175

I shall say, sitting at the dess ^[44],

I took thy speech beyond the sea."

Thomas still as stone he stood,

And he beheld that lady gay;

She came again as fair and good

180

And also rich on her palfrey.

Her grewhounds fillèd with deer-blood;

Her raches coupled, by my fay;

She blew her horn with main and mood ^[45];

Unto the castle she took the way.

185

Into the hall soothly she went;

Thomas followèd at her hand;

Then ladies came, both fair and gent,

With courtesy to her kneeland ^[46].

Harp and fithel both they fand ^[47],

190

Gittern and also the sawtery ^[48],

Lute and ribib ^[49] both gangand ^[50],

And all manner of minstrelsy.

The most marvel that Thomas thought,

When that he stood upon the floor,

195

For fifty hartès in were brought,

That were bothè great and store ^[51].

Raches lay lapping in the blood;

Cookès came with dressing-knife;

They brittened ^[52] them as they were wood;

200

Revel among them was full rife.

Knightès danced by three and three,

There was revel, gamen, and play;

Lovely ladies, fair and free,

That sat and sang on rich array.

205

Thomas dwelled in that solace

More than I you say, pardè;

Till on a day, so have I grace,

My lovely lady said to me ^[53];

"Do busk thee, Thomas; thee buse ^[54] again;

210

For thou may here no longer be;

Hie thee fast with might and main;

I shall thee bring till Eildon tree."

Thomas said then with heavy cheer ^[55],

"Lovely lady, now let me be;

215

For certes, lady, I have been here

Nought but the space of dayès three!"

"For sooth, Thomas, as I thee tell,

Thou hast been here three year and more;

But longer here thou may not dwell;^[56]

220

The skill ^[57] I shall thee tell wherefore.

To-morn ^[58], of hell the foulè fiend

Among this folk will fetch his fee;

And thou art mickle man and hend ^[59],

I trow full well he would choose thee.

225

For all the gold that ever may be

From hethen ^[60] unto the worldès end,

Thou beest never betrayed for me;

Therefore with me I rede ^[61] thou wend."

She brought him again to Eildon tree,

230

Underneath that greenwood spray.

In Huntlie banks is merry to be,

Where fowlès sing both night and day.^[62]

"Farewell, Thomas, I wend my way,

For me buse ^[63] over the bentès brown."

235

—Lo, here a fytte; more is to say ^[64]

All of Thomas of Erceldoune.

REGINALD SCOT

I should no more prevail herein [i.e. in securing attention] than if a hundred years since I should have entreated your predecessors to believe, that Robin Goodfellow, that great and ancient bull-beggar, had been but a cozening merchant and no devil indeed.... But Robin Goodfellow ceaseth now to be much feared, and popery is sufficiently discovered.

Book I, chap. iv.—"What miraculous actions are imputed to witches by witchmongers, papists, and poets."

[Quoted here to show that certain attributes of Shakespeare's fairies belong also to witches.]

[They] raise hail, tempests, and hurtful weather, as lighting, thunder, &c.... These can pass from place to place in the air invisible.... These can alter men's minds to inordinate love or hate.... Ovid affirmeth that they can raise and suppress lighting and thunder, rain and hail, clouds and winds, tempests and earthquakes. Others do write that they can pull down the moon and the stars.... They can also bring to pass, that, churn as long as you list, your butter will not come.

The Fairies do principally inhabit the mountains and caverns of the earth, whose nature is to make strange apparitions on the earth, in meadows or on mountains, being like men and women, soldiers, kings, and ladies, children and horsemen, clothed in green, to which purpose they do in the night steal hempen stalks from the fields where they grow, to convert them into horses, as the story goes.... Such jocund and facetious spirits are said to sport themselves in the night by tumbling and fooling with servants and shepherds in country houses, pinching them black and blue, and leaving bread, butter, and cheese sometimes with them, which, if they refuse to eat, some mischief shall undoubtedly befall them by the means of these Fairies; and many such have been taken away by the said spirits for a fortnight or a month together, being carried with them in chariots through the air, over hills and dales, rocks and precipices, till at last they have been found lying in some meadow or mountain, bereaved of their senses and commonly one of their members to boot.

It may not be omitted that certain wicked women ... being seduced by the illusion of devils, believe and profess that in the night-times they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans, or else with Herodias, with an innumerable multitude, upon certain beasts, and pass over many countries and nations in the silence of the night, and do whatsoever those fairies or ladies command.

Indeed your grandam's maids were wont to set a bowl of milk before him and his cousin, Robin Goodfellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight; and you have also heard that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or goodwife of the house, having compassion of his nakedness, laid any clothes for him, besides his mess of white bread and milk which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith: What have we here? Hemton hamton ^[1], here will I never more tread nor stampen.

Book V, chap. iii. "Of a man turned into an ass, and returned again into a man, by one of Bodin's witches: S. Augustine's opinion thereof." (See p. 30.)

It happened in the city of Salamin in the kingdom of Cyprus, where there is a good haven, that a ship loaden with merchandise stayed there for a short space. In the meantime many of the soldiers and mariners went to shore, to provide fresh victuals; among which number a certain Englishman, being a sturdy young fellow, went to a woman's house, a little way out of the city, and not far from the sea-side, to see whether she had any eggs to sell. Who, perceiving him to be a lusty young fellow, a stranger, and far from his country (so as, upon the loss of him, there would be the less miss or enquiry), she considered with herself how to destroy him; and willed him to stay there awhile, whilst she went to fetch a few eggs for him. But she tarried long, so as the young man called unto her desiring her to make haste; for he told her that the tide would be spent, and by that means his ship would be gone, and leave him behind. Howbeit, after some detracting of time, she brought him a few eggs, willing him to return to her, if his ship were gone when he came.

The young fellow returned towards his ship, but before he went aboard, he would needs eat an egg or twain to satisfy his hunger; and within short space he became dumb and out of his wits, as he afterwards said. When he would have entered into the ship, the mariners beat him back with a cudgel, saying, "What a murrain lacks the ass? Whither the devil will this ass?" The ass, or young man—I cannot tell by which name I should term him—being many times repelled, and understanding their words that called him ass, considering that he could speak never a word and yet could understand everybody, he thought that he was bewitched by the woman at whose house he was. And therefore, when by no means he could get into the boat, but was driven to tarry and see her departure, being also beaten from place to place as an ass, he remembered the witch's words, and the words of his own fellows that called him ass, and returned to the witch's house; in whose service he remained by the space of three years, doing nothing with his hands all that while, but carried such burthens as she laid on his back; having only this comfort, that, although he were reputed an ass among strangers and beasts, yet that both this witch and all other witches knew him to be a man.

After three years were passed over, in a morning betimes he went to town before his dame, who upon some occasion ... stayed a little behind. In the meantime being near to a church, he heard a little sacring-bell ring to the elevation of a morrow mass; and not daring to go into the church, lest he should have been beaten and driven out with cudgels, in great devotion he fell down in the churchyard upon the knees of his hinder legs, and did lift his forefeet over his head, as the priest doth hold the sacrament at the elevation. Which prodigious sight when certain merchants of Genoa espied, and with wonder beheld, anon cometh the witch with a cudgel in her hand, beating forth the ass. And because, as it hath been said, such kinds of witchcrafts are very usual in those parts, the merchants aforesaid made such means as both the ass and the witch were attached by the judge. And she, being examined and set upon the rack, confessed the whole matter, and promised that if she might have liberty to go home, she would restore him to his old shape; and being dismissed she did accordingly. So as notwithstanding they apprehended her again, and burned her; and the young man returned into his country with a joyful and merry heart.

"Know you this by the way, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin were as terrible, and also as credible to the people, as hags and witches be now: and in time to come a witch will be as much derided and contemned, and as plainly perceived, as the illusion and knavery of Robin Goodfellow. And in truth, they that maintain walking spirits with their transformation, &c, have no reason to deny Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there hath gone as many and as credible tales as upon witches; saving that it hath not pleased the translators of the Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin Goodfellow, as they have termed diviners, soothsayers, poisoners, and cozeners by the name of witches."

"But certainly some one knave in a white sheet hath cozened and abused many thousands that way; specially when Robin Goodfellow kept such a coil in the country.... They [our mothers' maids] have so fraid us with bull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, fauns, sylens, Kit with the canstick ^[2], tritons, centaurs, dwarfs, giants, imps, calkers, conjurors, nymphs, changelings, Incubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the mare, the man in the oak, the hell-wain, the fire-drake, the puckle, Tom Thumb, hobgoblin, Tom tumbler, boneless, and other such beings, that we are afraid of our own shadows."

Book XIII, chap. xix. [To set an horse's or an ass's head on a man's neck and shoulders.] (See p. 30.)

The words used in such case are uncertain, and to be recited at the pleasure of the witch or cozener. But at the conclusion of this, cut off the head of a horse or an ass (before they be dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be the less effectual), and make an earthen vessel of fit capacity to contain the same, and let it be filled with the oil and fat thereof, cover it close, and daub it over with loam; let it boil over a soft fire three days continually, that the flesh boiled may run into oil, so as the bare bones may be seen; beat the hair into powder, and mingle the same with the oil; and anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to have horses' or asses' heads.

"The Rabbins and, namely, Rabbi Abraham, writing upon the second of Genesis, do say that God made the fairies, bugs, Incubus, Robin Goodfellow, and other familiar or domestic spirits and devils on the Friday; and being prevented with the evening of the Sabbath, finished them not, but left them unperfect; and that therefore, that ever since they use to fly the holiness of the Sabbath, seeking dark holes in mountains and woods, wherein they hide themselves till the end of the Sabbath, and then come abroad to trouble and molest men."

"Virunculi terrei are such as was Robin Goodfellow, that would supply the office of servants—specially of maids: as to make a fire in the morning, sweep the house, grind mustard and malt, draw water, &c.; these also rumble in houses, draw latches, go up and down stairs, &c.... There go as many tales upon this Hudgin ^[3] in some parts of Germany, as there did in England of Robin Goodfellow."

STRANGE FARLIES

Strange farlies ^[1] fathers told

Of fiends and hags of hell;

And how that Circes, when she would,

Could skill of sorcery well;

And how old thin-faced wives,

That roasted crabs by night,

Did tell of monsters in their lives

That now prove shadows light;

And told what Merlin spoke

Of world and times to come;

But all that fire doth make no smoke,

For in mine ear doth hum

Another kind of bee,

That sounds a tune most strange,

A trembling noise of words to me

That makes my countenance change.

Of old Hobgobling's guise,

That walked like ghost in sheets,

With maids that would not early rise

For fear of bugs and sprites.

Some say the fairies fair

Did dance on Bednall Green,

And fine familiars of the air

Did talk with men unseen.

And oft in moonshine nights,

When each thing draws to rest,

Was seen dumb shows and ugly sights

That fearéd ^[2] every guest

Which lodgéd in the house;

And where good cheer was great,

Hodgepoke would come and drink carouse

And munch up all the meat.

But where foul sluts did dwell,

Who used to sit up late,

And would not scour the pewter well,

There came a merry mate

To kitchen or to hall,

Or place where sprites resort;

Then down went dish and platters all

To make the greater sport.

A further sport fell out

When they to spoil did fall;

Rude Robin Goodfellow, the lout,

Would skim the milk-bowls all,

And search the cream-pots too,

For which poor milk-maid weeps.

God wot what such mad guests will do

When people soundly sleeps!

. . . . . .

These are but fables feigned,

Because true stories old

In doubtful days are more disdained

Than any tale is told.