Robin Hood / A collection of all the ancient poems, songs, and ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English outlaw. To which are prefixed historical anecdotes of his life.

by Unknown

Thou talk’st like a coward, the stranger reply’d ;

Well arm’d with a long bow you stand,

To shoot at my breast, while I, I protest,

Have nought but a staff in my hand.

The name of a coward, quoth Robin, I scorn,

Therefore my long bow I’ll lay by ;

And now, for thy sake, a staff will I take,

The truth of thy manhood to try.

Then Robin Hood stept to a thicket of trees,

And chose him a staff of ground oak ;