Robin Goodfellow

ROM Oberon, in fairy land,
The king of ghosts and shadows there,
Mad Robin I, at his command,
Amsent 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,
Andmake good sport, with ho, ho, ho!
More swift than lightning can I fly About this airy welkin soon,
And, in aminute's space, descry Each thing that's done below the moon.
There's not a hag
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,
ROBIN GOODFELLOW
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 our heyday guise;
Andto 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 in bed,
We leave instead,
And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!
From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
Thus nightly revell'd to and fro ;
And for my pranks men call meby The name of Robin Goodfellow.
Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
Who haunt the nights,
SUPPOSE
The hags and goblins do me know:
Andbeldames old
My feats have told,
So valé, valé! ho, ho, hol