"Pedlar, pedlar, what is thy name?
Come speedilie and tell to me:"
"My name! my name I ne'er will tell,
Till both your names you have told to me."
"The one of us is bold Robin Hood,45
And the other Little John so free:"
"Now," says the pedlar, "it lays to my good will,
Whether my name I chuse to tell to thee.
"I am Gamble Gold of the gay green woods,
And travelled far beyond the sea;50
For killing a man in my father's land,
rom my country I was forced to flee."
"If you are Gamble Gold of the gay green woods,
And travelled far beyond the sea,
You are my mother's own sister's son;55
What nearer cousins then can we be?"
They sheathed their swords with friendly words,
So merrilie they did agree,
They went to a tavern and there they dined,
And bottles cracked most merrilie.60
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR:
Shewing how Robin Hood and the Beggar fought, and how he changed cloaths with the Beggar, and how he went a begging to Nottingham: and how he saved three brethren from being hang'd for stealing of deer. To the tune of Robin Hood and the Stranger.
"From an old black-letter copy in the collection of Anthony à Wood." Ritson's Robin Hood, ii. 126.
The three pieces which follow are all different versions of what is called the Second Part of this ballad.