Now Robin is to Nottingham gone,
With a link, a down, and a day,
And there he met a silly* old woman,
Was weeping on the way.
*[Footnote: Silly here expresses a combination of simplicity and
virtue.]
"What news? what news? thou silly old woman,
What news hast thou for me?"
Said she, "There's three squires in Nottingham town,
To-day are condemned to die."
"Oh, what have they done?" said Robin Hood,
"I pray thee tell to me."
"It's for slaying of the King's fallow deer,
Bearing their long bows with thee."
"Dost thou not mind, old woman," he said,
"Since thou made me sup and dine?
By the truth of my body," quoth bold Robin Hood,
"You could not tell it in better time."
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone,
With a link, a down, and a day,
And there he met with a silly old palmer,*
Was walking along the highway.
*[Footnote: A palmer was a person who bad made a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land and brought back with him a palm branch. Later on the term
was applied to a monk who had taken a vow of poverty, and who spent
all his time traveling about from shrine to shrine.]
"What news? what news? thou silly old man,
What news, I do thee pray?"
Said he, "Three squires in Nottingham town,
Are condemn'd to die this day."
"Come change thy apparel with me, old man,
Come change thy apparel for mine;
Here is forty shillings in good silver,
Go drink it in beer or wine."
"Oh, thine apparel is good," he said,
"And mine is ragged and torn;
Wherever you go, wherever you ride,
Laugh ne'er an old man to scorn."
"Come change thy apparel with me, old churl,
Come change thy apparel with mine;
Here are twenty pieces of good broad gold,
Go feast thy brethren with wine."
Then he put on the old man's cloak,
Was patch'd black, blew, and red;
He thought it no shame, all the day long,
To wear the bags of bread.