XXIV.
ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW,
Alias _Pucke_, alias _Hobgoblin_, in the creed of ancient superstition, was a kind of merry sprite, whose character and atchievements are recorded in this ballad, and in those well-known lines of Milton's _L'Allegro_, which the antiquarian Peck supposes to be owing to it:
"Tells how the drudging _Goblin_ swet To earn his creame-bowle duly set; When in one night ere glimpse of morne, His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down the lubber fiend, And stretch'd out all the chimneys length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength, And crop-full out of doors he flings, Ere the first cock his matins rings."
The reader will observe that our simple ancestors had reduced all these whimsies to a kind of system, as regular, and perhaps more consistent, than many parts of classic mythology: a proof of the extensive influence and vast antiquity of these superstitions. Mankind, and especially the common people, could not every where have been so unanimously agreed concerning these arbitrary notions, if they had not prevailed among them for many ages. Indeed, a learned friend in Wales assures the Editor, that the existence of Fairies and Goblins is alluded to by the most ancient British Bards, who mention them under various names, one of the most common of which signifies, _The spirits of the mountains_. See also Preface to Song XXV.
This song, which Peck attributes to Ben Jonson, (tho' it is not found among his works) is chiefly printed from an ancient black-letter copy in the British Museum. It seems to have been originally intended for some Masque.
It is intitled, in the old black-letter copies, _The mad merry_ _Prankes of Robin Goodfellow_. To the tune of _Dulcina_, &c. (See No. XIII. above.)
To one, if not more of the old copies, are prefixed two wooden cuts, said to be taken from Bulwer's _Artificial Changeling, &c._, which, as they seem to correspond with the notions then entertained of the whimsical appearances of this fantastic spirit, and perhaps were copied in the dresses in which he was formerly exhibited on the stage, are, to gratify the curious, engraven below.
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[The copy in the Roxburghe _Collection_ (ed. Chappell, vol. ii. pl. i. p. 80) is printed by H[enry] G[osson], who was a contemporary of Ben Jonson. Some little books in prose on _Robin Goodfellow_, written in the seventeenth century, were printed for the Percy Society by Mr. J. P. Collier.]
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From Oberon, in fairye land, The king of ghosts and shadowes there, Mad Robin I, at his command, Am sent to viewe the night-sports here. What revell rout 5 Is kept about, In every corner where I go, I will o'ersee, And merry bee, And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho! 10
More swift than lightening can I flye About this aery welkin soone, And, in a minutes space, descrye Each thing that's done belowe the moone, There's not a hag 15 Or ghost shall wag, Or cry, ware Goblins! where I go; But Robin I Their feates will spy, And send them home, with ho, ho, ho! 20
Whene'er such wanderers I meete, As from their night-sports they trudge home; With counterfeiting voice I greete And call them on, with me to roame Thro' woods, thro' lakes, 25 Thro' bogs, thro' brakes; Or else, unseene, with them I go, All in the nicke To play some tricke And frolicke it, with ho, ho, ho! 30
Sometimes I meete 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, 35 My backe they stride, More swift than wind away I go, Ore hedge and lands, Thro' pools and ponds I whirry, laughing, ho, ho, ho! 40
When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with juncates fine; Unseene of all the company, I eat their cakes and sip their wine; And, to make sport, 45 I fart and snort; And out the candles I do blow: The maids I kiss; They shrieke--Who's this? I answer nought, but ho, ho, ho! 50
Yet now and then, the maids to please, At midnight I card up their wooll; And while they sleepe, and take their ease, With wheel to threads their flax I pull. I grind at mill 55 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! 60
When house or harth doth sluttish lye,[416] I pinch the maidens blacke and blue; The bed-clothes from the bedd pull I, And lay them naked all to view. 'Twixt sleepe and wake, 65 I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw. If out they cry, Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho! 70
When any need to borrowe ought, We lend them what they do require; And for the use demand we nought; Our owne is all we do desire. If to repay, 75 They do delay, Abroad amongst them then I go, And night by night, I them affright With pinchings, dreames, and ho, ho, ho! 80
When lazie queans have nought to do, But study how to cog and lye; To make debate and mischief too, 'Twixt one another secretlye: I marke their gloze, 85 And it disclose, To them whom they have wronged so; When I have done, I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho! 90
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: I spy the gin, 95 And enter in, And seeme a vermine taken so; But when they there Approach me neare, I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho! 100
By wells and rills,[417] in meadowes greene, We nightly dance our hey-day guise;[418] And to our fairye king, and queene, We chant our moon-light minstrelsies. When larks 'gin sing, 105 Away we fling; And babes new borne steal as we go, And else in bed, We leave instead, And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho! 110
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, 115 Who haunt the nightes, The hags and goblins do me know; And beldames old My feates have told; So _Vale, Vale_; ho, ho, ho! 120
FOOTNOTES:
[416] [Ver. 61. this begins the second part in the Roxburghe copy.]
[417] [gills=rivulets, _Roxb. copy_.]
[418] [a misprint for heydegies=rustic dances. The word occurs in Lily's _Endymion_, 1591, and in Wm. Bulleyn's _Dialogue_, 1564, where the minstrel daunces "Trenchmore" and "Heie de gie."--_Chappell._]