Communicated to Gutch by Mr. Payne Collier, and derived by him, with Robin Hood and the Peddlers, from a volume of MS. ballads, collected, as Mr. C. conjectures, about the date of the Protectorate.
The story is only one of the varieties of the Douglas Tragedy. See vol. ii. p. 114.
As Robin Hood sat by a tree,
He espied a prettie may,
And when she chanced him to see,
She turnd her head away.
"O feare me not, thou prettie mayde,5
And doe not flie from mee,
I am the kindest man," he said,
"That ever eye did see."
Then to her he did doffe his cap,
And to her lowted low,10
"To meete with thee I hold it good hap,
If thou wilt not say noe."
Then he put his hand around her waste,
Soe small, so tight, and trim,
And after sought her lip to taste,15
And she to[o] kissed him.
"Where dost thou dwell, my prettie maide,
I prithee tell to mee?"
"I am a tanners daughter," she said,
"John Hobbes of Barneslee."20
"And whither goest thou, pretty maide?
Shall I be thy true love?"
"If thou art not afeard," she said,
"My true love thou shalt prove."
"What should I feare?" then he replied;25
"I am thy true love now;"
"I have two brethren, and their pride
Would scorn such one as thou."
"That will we try," quoth Robin Hood,
"I was not made their scorne;30
Ile shed my blood to doe the[e] good,
As sure as they were borne."