2 WITCH. I have beene gathering wolves haires, The madd dogges foames, and adders eares; The spurging of a deadmans eyes: And all since the evening starre did rise. 3 WITCH. I last night lay all alone O' the ground, to heare the mandrake grone; And, as I had done, the cocke did crow. 4 WITCH. And I ha' beene chusing out this scull From private grots, and publike pits; And frighted a sexton out of his wits. 5 WITCH. Under a cradle I did crepe By day; and, when the childe was a-sleepe 5 10 15 And pluck'd the nodding nurse by the nose. 20 6 WITCH. I had a dagger: what did I with that? Killed an infant to have his fat. A piper it got at a church-ale. I bade him again blow wind i' the taile. 7 WITCH. A murderer, yonder, was hung in chaines; The sunne and the wind had shrunke his veines: I bit off a sinew; I clipp'd his haire ; I brought off his ragges, that danc'd i' the ayre. 8 WITCH. 25 The scrich-owles egges and the feathers blacke, A purset, to keepe sir Cranion in. 9 WITCH. And I ha' beene plucking (plants among) And twise by the dogges was like to be tane. 10 WITCH. I from the jawes of a gardiner's bitch Did snatch these bones, and then leap'd the ditch: Yet went I back to the house againe, Kill'd the blacke cat, and here is the braine. 35 40 11 WITCH. I went to the toad, breedes under the wall, DAME. Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows, The fig-tree wild, that growes on tombes, 45 XXIV. ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW, -alias PUCKE, alias HoвGOBLIN, 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: "Tells how the drudging GOBLIN swet 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 Pre- ¦ face 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 intitled, in the old black-letter copies, "The merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow. To the tune of Dulcina," &c. (See No. XIII. above.) 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, 5 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 Or ghost shall wag, Or cry, ware Goblins! where I go; But Robin I 15 Their feates will spy, And send them home, with ho, ho, ho! 20 |