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(From Rokeby)
ALLEN-A-DALE has no fagot for burning, | |
| Allen-a-Dale has no furrow for turning, | |
| Allen-a-Dale has no fleece for the spinning, | |
| Yet Allen-a-Dale has red gold for the winning. | |
| Come read me my riddle! come hearken my tale! | 5 |
| And tell me the craft of bold Allen-a-Dale. | |
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| The Baron of Ravensworth prances in pride, | |
| And he views his domains upon Arkindale side. | |
| The mere for his net, and the land for his game, | |
| The chase for the wild, and the park for the tame; | 10 |
| Yet the fish of the lake, and the deer of the vale, | |
| Are less free to Lord Dacre than Allen-a-Dale. | |
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| Allen-a-Dale was ne’er belted a knight, | |
| Though his spur be as sharp, and his blade be as bright; | |
| Allen-a-Dale is no baron or lord, | 15 |
| Yet twenty tall yeomen will draw at his word; | |
| And the best of our nobles his bonnet will veil, | |
| Who at Rere-cross on Stanmore meets Allen-a-Dale. | |
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| Allen-a-Dale to his wooing is come; | |
| The mother, she asked of his household and home; | 20 |
| “Though the castle of Richmond stand fair on the hill, | |
| My hall,” quoth bold Allen, “shows gallanter still; | |
| ’T is the blue vault of heaven, with its crescent so pale, | |
| And with all its bright spangles!” said Allen-a-Dale. | |
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| The father was steel, and the mother was stone; | 25 |
| They lifted the latch, and they bade him be gone; | |
| But loud, on the morrow, their wail and their cry: | |
| He had laughed on the lass with his bonny black eye, | |
| And she fled to the forest to hear a love-tale, | |
| And the youth it was told by was Allen-a-Dale! | 30 |
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