And out the candles I do blow :
The maids I kiss,

They shriek-Who's this?

I answer nought but ho, ho, ho!

Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wool;
And, while they sleep and take their ease,
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at mill

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 any need to borrow ought,

We lend them what they do require : And, for the use demand we nought; Our own is all we do desire.

With pinchings, dreams, and ho, ho, ho!

When laxy queans have nought to do,

But study how to cog and lie : To make debate and mischief too, "Twixt one another secretly:

I mark their gloze,

And it disclose

To them whom they have wrongèd so: When I have done,

I get me gone,

And leave them scolding, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and rills, in meadows green,
We nightly dance our heyday guise;
And to our fairy king and queen

We chant our moonlight minstrelsies.

And elf in bed

We leave in stead,

And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!

From hag-bred Merlin's time, have I
Thus nightly revelled to and fro;
And for my pranks men call me by
The name of Robin Goodfellow.
Fiends, ghosts, and spirites,
Who haunt the nights,

Thy hags and goblins do me know;
And beldames old

My feats have told,

So vale, vale; ho, ho, ho!

THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER.

ANONYMOUS.

AN old song made by an aged old pate,

Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a great estate, That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate, And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate; Like an old courtier of the queen's,

And the queen's old courtier.

With an old lady, whose anger one word assuages;
They every quarter paid their old servants their wages,
And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen, nor

pages,

But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old study fill'd full of learned old books,

With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks,

With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks,
And an old kitchen, that maintain'd half a dozen old cooks ;
Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many shrewd blows,

And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose, And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper nose;

Like an old courtier, &c.

With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come,
To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum;
With good cheer enough to furnish every old room,
And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb ;
Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old falconer, huntsmen, and a kennel of hounds, That never hawk'd, nor hunted, but in his own grounds; Who, like a wise man, kept himself within his own bounds, And when he died, gave every child a thousand good pounds; Like an old courtier, &c.

But to his eldest son his house and lands he assign'd, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountiful mind, To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbours be kind :

But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was inclined ; Like a young courtier of the king's,

And the king's young courtier.

Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land, Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command, And takes up a thousand pounds upon his father's land, And gets drunk in a tavern till he can neither go nor stand:

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a newfangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and spare, Who never knew what belong'd to good housekeeping or

care,

Who buys gaudy-colour'd fans to play with wanton air,
And seven or eight different dressings of other women's hair :
Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one stood,
Hung round with new pictures that do the poor no good,
With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor
wood,

And a new smooth shovel board, whereon no victuals e'er stood :

Like a young courtier, &c.

With a new study, stuff'd full of pamphlets and plays,
And a new chaplain, than swears faster than he prays,
With a new buttery hatch, that opens once in four or five
days,

And a new French cook, to devise fine kickshaws and toys:
Like a young courtier, &c.