XXIV. ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW, alias Pucke, alias Hobgoblin, in the creed of ancient superstition, was a kind of merry sprite, whose character and achievements 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:1 'Tells how the drudging Goblin swet To earne his creame-bowle duly set; 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, (though 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. [This ballad is entitled, in the old black letter copies, 'The merry pranks of Robin Goodfellow. To the tune of Dulcina,' &c. (See No. XIII. above.) Addit. Note Ed. 1794.] 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 Is kept about, In every corner where I go, I will o'ersee, And merry bee, And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho! 1 See also 'Midsummer Night's Dream.'-ED. 5 15 20 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 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! 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' 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! Sometimes I meete them like a man; And to a horse I turn me can; Sometimes, an ox, sometimes, a hound; To trip and trot about them round. But if, to ride, 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! 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, 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! Yet now and then, the maids to please, 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 harth doth sluttish lye, I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw. Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho! 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. With pinchings, dreames, and ho, ho, ho! 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, And it disclose, To them whom they have wrongèd so; I get me gone, And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho! 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, their lambes and sheepe: I spy the gin, And enter in, And seeme a vermine taken so; But when they there Approach me neare, I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho! By wells and rills, in meadowes greene, We chant our moon-light minstrelsies. 95 100 105 And babes new borne steal as we go, 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 me by The name of Robin Good-fellow. Fiends, ghosts, and sprites, Who haunt the nightes, The hags and goblins do me know; And beldames old My feates have told; So Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho! XXV. THE FAIRY QUEEN. 110 115 120 We have here a short display of the popular belief concerning Fairies. It will afford entertainment to a contemplative mind to trace these whimsical opinions up to their origin. Whoever considers, how early, how extensively, and how uniformly, they have prevailed in these nations, will not readily assent to the hypothesis of those, who fetch them from the east so late as the time of the Crusades. Whereas it is well known that our Saxon ancestors, long before they left their German forests, believed the existence of a kind of diminutive demons, or middle species between men and spirits, whom they called Duergar or Dwarfs, and to whom they attributed many wonderful performances, far exceeding human art. Vid. Hervarer Saga Olaj Verelj. 1675. Hickes Thesaur, &c. This song is given (with some corrections by another copy) from a book entitle, The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, &c.' Lond. 1658. 8vo.1 เ COME, follow, follow me, You, fairy elves that be: Which circle on the greene, Come follow Mab your queene. 1 A copy of this ballad is found in a tract on the King and Queen of the Fairies,' printed in 1635.-ED. |