LITTLE JOHN AND THE RED FRIAR, A LAY OF SHERWOOD.
FYTTE THE FIRST.
The deer may leap within the glade;
The fawns may follow free—
For Robin is dead, and his bones are laid
Beneath the greenwood tree.
And broken are his merry, merry men,
That goodly companie:
There's some have ta'en the northern road
With Jem of Netherbee.
The best and bravest of the band
With Derby Ned are gone;
But Earlie Gray and Charlie Wood,
They stayed with Little John.
Now Little John was an outlaw proud,
A prouder ye never saw;
Through Nottingham and Leicester shires
He thought his word, was law,
And he strutted through the greenwood wide,
Like a pestilent jackdaw.
He swore that none, but with leave of him,
Should set foot on the turf so free:
And he thought to spread his cutter's rule,
All over the south countrie.
"There's never a knave in the land," he said,
"But shall pay his toll to me!"
And Charlie Wood was a taxman good
As ever stepped the ground,
He levied mail, like a sturdy thief,
From all the yeomen round.