THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD

(CHILD VERSION A)

`I will never eat nor drinke,' Robin Hood said, 
`Nor meat will do me no good, 
Till I have been at merry Churchlees, 
My veins for to let blood.' 

`That I read not,' said Will Scarlet, 
`Master, by the assent of me, 
Without half a hundred of your best bowmen 
You take to go with ye. 

`For there a good yeoman doth abide 
Will be sure to quarrell with thee, 
And if thou have need of us, master, 
In faith we will not flee.' 

'And thou be feard, thou William Scarlet, 
At home I read thee be:' 
`And you be wroth, my dear master, 
You shall never hear more of me.' 

'For there shall no man with me go, 
Nor man with me ryde, 
And Little John shall be my man, 
And bear my benbow by my side.' 

'You'st bear your bow, master, your self,
And shoot for a peny with me:' 
'To that I do assent,' Robin Hood said, 
`And so, John, let it be.' 

They two bold children shotten together,
All day their self in rank, 
Until they came to black water, 
And over it laid a plank. 

Upon it there kneeled an old woman, 
Was banning Robin Hoode;
`Why dost thou bann Robin Hood?' said Robin, 

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Nine stanzas missing
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`To give to Robin Hoode; 
We weepen for his dear body, 
That this day must be let blood.' 

`The Dame Prior is my aunt's daughter, 
And nigh unto my kin; 
I know she would me no harm this day, 
For all the world to win.' 

Forth then shotten these children two, 
And they did never lin, 
Until they came to merry Churchless, 
To merry Churchlee[s] with-in. 

And when they came to merry Churchlees, 
They knocked upon a pin; 
Up then rose Dame Prioresse, 
And let good Robin in. 

Then Robin gave to Dame Prioresse 
Twenty pound in gold, 
And bade her spend while that would last, 
And she should have more when she would. 

And down then came Dame Prioresse, 
Down she came in that ilke,
With a pair off blood-irons in her hands, 
Were wrapped all in silk. 

`Set a chaffing-dish to the fire,' said Dame Prioresse, 
And strip thou up thy sleeve:' 
I hold him but an unwise man 
That will no warning leeve. 

She laid the blood-irons to Robin Hood's vein, 
Alack, the more pity! 
And pierced the vein, and let out the blood, 
That full red was to see. 

And first it bled, the thick, thick bloode, 
And afterwards the thin, 
And well then wist good Robin Hood 
Treason there was within. 

`What cheer my master?' said Little John; 
`In faith, John, little good 

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`I have upon a gown of green,
Is cut short by my knee, 
And in my hand a bright brown brand
That will well bite of thee.' 

But forth then of a shot-window
Good Robin Hood he could glide; 
Red Roger, with a grounden glave,
Thrust him through the milk-white side. 

But Robin was light and nimble of foot,
And thought to abate his pride, 
For betwixt his head and his shoulders 
He made a wound full wide. 

Says, `Lie there, lie there, Red Roger, 
The dogs they must thee eat; 
For I may have my housle,' he said,
`For I may both go and speak. 

`Now give me mood,' Robin said to Little John, 
`Give me mood with thy hand;
I trust to God in heaven so high 
My housle will me bestand.'

`Now give me leave, give me leave, master,' he said,
`For Christ's love give leave to me, 
To set a fire within this hall,
And to burn up all Churchlee.' 

`That I read not,' said Robin Hood then,
`Little John, for it may not be; 
If I should do any widow hurt, at my latter end,
God,' he said,' would blame me; 

`But take me upon thy back, Little John,
And bear me to yonder street,
And there make me full fair grave,
Of gravel and of grete.

`And set my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrows at my feet.
And lay my yew-bow by my side,
My met-yard wi

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Nine stanzas missing
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(CHILD VERSION B)

1
When Robin Hood and Little John
Went over yon bank of broom,
Said Robin Hood to Little John,
'We have shot for many a pound.

2
'But I am not able to shoot one shot more,
My arrows will not flee ;
But I have a cousin lives down below
Please God, she will bleed me.'

3
Now Robin is to fair Kirkley gone,
As fast as he cou'd wen ;
But before he came there, as we do hear
He was taken very ill.

4
And when that he came to fair Kirkley hall,
He knocked at the ring,
But none was so ready as his cousin herself
For to let bold Robin in.

5
'Will you please to sit down, cousin Robin,' she said,
'And drink some beer with me ?'
'No, I will neither eat nor drink,
Till I blood letted be.'

6
'Well, I have a room, cousin Robin,' she said,
'Which you did never see,
And if you please to walk therein,
You blood shall letted be.'

7
She took him by the lilly white hand,
And let him into a private room,
And there she blooded bold Robin Hood,
Whilst one drop of blood would run.

8
She blooded him in the vein of the arm,
And lock'd him up in a room;
There did he bleed all the live-long day,
Untill the next day at noon.

9
He then bethought him of a casement door,
Thinking for to be gone;
He was so weak he could not leap,
Nor he could not get down.

10
He then bethought him of his bugle horn,
Which hung low down to his knee ;
He set his horn unto his mouth,
And blew out strong blasts three.

11
Then Little John, when hearing him,
As he sat under the tree,
'I fear my master is near dead,
He blows so wearily.'

12
Then Little John to fair Kirkley is gone,
As fast as he could dree ;
But when he came to Kirkley-hall,
He broke locks two or three ;

13
Untill he came bold Robin to,
Then he fell on his knee;
'A boon, a boon !' cries Little John,
'Master, I beg of thee !'

14
'What is that boon,' quoth Robin Hood,
'Little John, thou begs of me ?'
'It is to burn fair Kirkley-hall,
And all their nunnery.'

15
'I ne'er hurt fair maid in all my time,
Nor at my end shall it be;
But give me my bent bow in my hand,
And my broad arrows I'll let flee.

16
'And where this arrow is taken up,
There shall my grave digged be.
With verdant sods most neatly put,
Sweet as the green wood tree.

17
'And lay my bent bow by my side,
Which was my music sweet,
And make my grave of gravel and green,
Which is most right and meet.

18
'Let me have length and breadth enough,
With a green sod under my head;
That they may say, when I am dead,
HERE LIES BOLD-ROBIN HOOD'

19
These words they readily granted him,
Which did bold Robin please;
Near to the bold Robin Hood,
- Kirkleys.

20
Kirkleys was beautiful of old,
Like Winifrid's of Wales,
By whose fair well strange cures are
told in legendary tales.

21
Upon his grave was laid a stone,
Declaring that he dy'd,
And tho' so many years ago,
Time can't his actions hide.

22
Thus he that fear'd neither bow nor spear
Was murder'd by letting blood;
And so, loving friends, the story ends,
Of valiant bold Robin Hood.

23
There is nothing remains but his epitaph now,
Which, reader, here you have,
To this very day, which read you may,
As it was upon the grave.

Hey down a derry derry down.

Robin Hood' s Epitaph, set on his tomb by
the Prioress of Kirkley Monastry, in Yorkshire.
	Robert Earl of Huntington
	Lies under this little stone.
	No archer was like him so good :
	His wildness nam' d him Robin Hood.
	Full thirteen years, and something more,
	These no(r)thern parts he vexed sore.
	Such out-laws as he and his men
	May England never know again !