On Dunsmore heath I alsoe slewe
A monstrous wyld and cruell beast,
Calld the Dun-cow of Dunsmore heath;
100 Which manye people had opprest.
Some of her bones in Warwicke yett
Still for a monument doth lye,
And there exposed to lookers viewe,
As wondrous strange, they may espye.
105 A dragon in Northumberland
I alsoe did in fight destroye,
Which did bothe man and beast oppresse,
And all the countrye sore annoye.
At length to Warwicke I did come,
110 Like pilgrim poore, and was not knowne;
And there I lived a hermitts life
A mile and more out of the towne.
Where with my hands I hewed a house
Out of a craggy rocke of stone,
115 And lived like a palmer poore
Within that cave myself alone:
And daylye came to begg my bread
Of Phelis att my cattle gate;
Not knowne unto my loved wiffe,
120 Who dailye mourned for her mate.
Till att the last I fell sore sicke,
Yea, sicke soe sore that I must dye;
I sent to her a ring of golde,
By which shee knew me presentlye.
125 Then shee repairing to the cave,
Before that I gave up the ghost,
Herself closd up my dying eyes;
My Phelis faire, whom I lovd most.
Thus dreadful death did me arrest,
130 To bring my corpes unto the grave,
And like a palmer dyed I,
Wherby I sought my soule to save.