Then go we merrily, merrily on,5
To the green-wood to take up our stand,
Where we will lye in waite for our game,
With our bent bowes in our hand.
What life is there like to bold Robin Hood?
It is so pleasant a thing a:10
In merry Shirwood he spends his dayes,
As pleasantly as a king a.
No man may compare with Robin Hood,
With Robin Hood, Scathlocke and John;
Their like was never, nor never will be,15
If in ease that they were gone.
They will not away from merry Shirwood,
In any place else to dwell:
For there is neither city nor towne,
That likes them halfe so well.20
Our lives are wholly given to hunt,
And haunt the merry greene-wood,
Where our best service is daily spent
For our master Robin Hood.
GLOSSARY.
☞ Figures placed after words denote the pages in which they occur.
- a', all.
- aboon, abune, above.
- abowthe, about.
- abye, abide, pay.
- acward stroke, [21], an unusual, out-of-the-way stroke, which could not be guarded against.
- ae, one.
- aftur the way, [11], upon the way.
- agayne, against.
- agone, ago.
- aik, oak.
- alane, alone.
- Alcaron, [414], the name of an imaginary deity, by metathesis from Alcoran. Ritson. The original reading is, however, Acoron.
- alkone, each one.
- al so mote, so may I.
- altherbest, best of all.
- amain, all, [292], at once.
- ance, once.
- anker, anchorite.
- a-row, in a row.
- Arthur-a-Bradley, [351], the title of a ballad.
- arwe, arrow;
- arwys, arrows.
- asay, tried.
- assoyld, absolved.
- avowè, founder, patron, protector.
- awayte me scathe, [80], lie in wait, or lay plots, to do me injury.
- awet, know.
- awkwarde stroke, [166], an unusual, out-of-the-way stroke.
- ayen, again.
- ayenst, against.
- ayont, beyond.
- ayre, by, [197], early.
- azon, [39], against, towards [them].