| |
| WHEN 1 Robin Hood and Little John, | |
| Down a down, a down, a down, | |
| Went o’er yon bank of broom, | |
| Said Robin Hood bold to Little John, | |
| ‘We have shot for many a pound:’ | 5 |
| Hey down, a down, a down. | |
| |
| ‘But I am not able to shoot one shot more, | |
| My broad arrows will not flee; | |
| But I have a cousin lives down below, | |
| Please God, she will bleed me.’ | 10 |
| |
| Now Robin is to fair Kirkly gone, | |
| As fast as he can win; | |
| But before he came there, as we do hear, | |
| He was taken very ill. | |
| |
| And when he came to fair Kirkly-hall, | 15 |
| He knocked all at the ring, | |
| But none was so ready as his cousin herself | |
| For to let bold Robin in. | |
| |
| ‘Will you please to sit down, cousin Robin,’ she said, | |
| ‘And drink some beer with me?’ | 20 |
| ‘No, I will neither eat nor drink, | |
| Till I am blooded by thee.’ | |
| |
| ‘Well, I have a room, cousin Robin,’ she said, | |
| ‘Which you did never see, | |
| And if you please to walk therein, | 25 |
| You blooded by me shall be.’ | |
| |
| She took him by the lily-white hand, | |
| And led him to a private room, | |
| And there she blooded bold Robin Hood, | |
| While one drop of blood would run down. | 30 |
| |
| She blooded him in a vein of the arm, | |
| And locked him up in the room; | |
| Then did he bleed all the live-long day, | |
| Until the next day at noon. | |
| |
| He then bethought him of a casement there, | 35 |
| Thinking for to get down; | |
| But he was so weak he could not leap, | |
| He could not get him down. | |
| |
| He then bethought him of his bugle-horn, | |
| Which hung low down to his knee; | 40 |
| He set his horn unto his mouth, | |
| And blew out weak blasts three. | |
| |
| Then Little John, when hearing him, | |
| As he sat under a tree, | |
| ‘I fear my master is now near dead, | 45 |
| He blows so wearily.’ | |
| |
| Then Little John to fair Kirkly is gone, | |
| As fast as he can dree; | |
| But when he came to Kirkly-hall, | |
| He broke locks two or three: | 50 |
| |
| Until he came bold Robin to see, | |
| Then he fell on his knee: | |
| ‘A boon, a boon,’ cries Little John, | |
| ‘Master, I beg of thee.’ | |
| |
| ‘What is that boon,’ said Robin Hood, | 55 |
| ‘Little John, thou begs of me?’ | |
| ‘It is to burn fair Kirkly-hall, | |
| And all their nunnery.’ | |
| |
| ‘Now nay, now nay,’ quoth Robin Hood, | |
| ‘That boon I’ll not grant thee; | 60 |
| I never hurt woman in all my life, | |
| Nor men in woman’s company. | |
| |
| ‘I never hurt fair maid in all my time, | |
| Nor at mine end shall it be; | |
| But give me my bent bow in my hand, | 65 |
| And a broad arrow I’ll let flee; | |
| And where this arrow is taken up, | |
| There shall my grave digg’d be. | |
| |
| ‘Lay me a green sod under my head, | |
| And another at my feet; | 70 |
| And lay my bent bow by my side, | |
| Which was my music sweet; | |
| And make my grave of gravel and green, | |
| Which is most right and meet. | |
| |
| ‘Let me have length and breadth enough, | 75 |
| With under my head a green sod; | |
| That they may say, when I am dead, | |
| Here lies bold Robin Hood.’ | |
| |
| These words they readily promised him, | |
| Which did bold Robin please; | 80 |
| And there they buried bold Robin Hood, | |
| Within the fair Kirkleys. | |
