3-101-388 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Robin Goodfellow, 1842. Illustrated poem. 'By wells and rills, in meadowes greene, We nightly dance our hey-day guise; And to our fairye king and queene We chant our moon-light minstrelsies. When larks 'gin sing, Away we fling; And babes new borne steal as we go, And elfe in bed We leave instead, And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho! From hag-bred Merlin's time have I Thus nightly revell'd to and fro: And for my pranks men call me by The name of Robin Good-fellow. Fiends, ghosts, and sprites, Who haunt the nights, The hags and goblins do me know; And beldames old My feates have told; So Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho!' From "The Book of British Ballads, S. C. Hall (ed.) [London: Jeremiah How, 1842-1844]