Yet is she curster than the bear by kind,

And harder-hearted than the aged oak,
More glib than oil, more fickle than the wind,
Stiffer than steel, no sooner bent but broke.
Lo thus my service is a lasting sore;
Yet will I serve, although I die therefore.

From MUNDAY and CHETTLE'S
Death of Robin Hood, 1601.

ROBIN HOOD BORNE ON HIS BIER.

WEE

EEP, weep, ye woodmen ! wail; Your hands with sorrow wring! Your master Robin Hood lies dead, Therefore sigh as you sing.

Here lie his primer and his beads,

His bent bow and his arrows keen, His good sword and his holy cross :

Now cast on flowers fresh and green.

And, as they fall, shed tears and say

Well, well-a-day! well, well-a-day! Thus cast ye flowers fresh, and sing,

And on to Wakefield take your way.

From ANTHONY MUNDAY'S
Metropolis Coronata, the
Triumphs of Ancient Dra-
pery, 1615.

THE SONG OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS HUNTSMEN.

OW wend we together, my merry men all,

NOW

Unto the forest side-a:

And there to strike a buck or a doe

Let our cunning all be tried-a.

Then go we merrily, merrily on,

To the greenwood to take our stand, Where we will lie in wait for our game, With our bent bows all in our hand.

What life is there like to Robin Hood?
It is so pleasant a thing-a:

In merry Sherwood he spends his days
As pleasantly as a king-a.

No man may compare with Robin Hood,
With Robin Hood, Scathlock and John:
Their like was never, and never will be,
If in case that they were gone.

They will not away from merry Sherwood
In any place else to dwell;

For there is neither city nor town
That likes them half so well.

Our lives are wholly given to hunt,
And haunt the merry green wood,
Where our best service is daily spent
For our master Robin Hood.

From THOMAS CAMPION'S Description of a Masque presented in honour of the Lord Hayes and his Bride, 1607.

STROW ABOUT, STROW ABOUT.

Now

WOW hath Flora robbed her bowers
To befriend this place with flowers :
Strow about, strow about!

The sky rained never kindlier showers.
Flowers with bridals well agree,

Fresh as brides and bridegrooms be:
Strow about, strow about!

And mix them with fit melody.
Earth hath no princelier flowers

Than roses white and roses red,

But they must still be mingled:

And as a rose new plucked from Venus' thorn,
So doth a bride her bridegroom's bed adorn.

Divers divers flowers affect

For some private dear respect :

Strow about, strow about!

Let every one his own affect;

But he's none of Flora's friend

That will not the rose commend.

Strow about, strow about!

Let princes princely flowers defend :

Roses, the garden's pride,

Are flowers for love and flowers for kings,

In courts desired and weddings :

And as a rose in Venus' bosom worn,

So doth a bridegroom his bride's bed adorn.

THE MASQUE-WRITER'S APOLOGY.

NEITHER buskin now nor bays

Challenge I: a lady's praise

Shall content my proudest hope.
Their applause was all my scope ;
And to their shrines properly
Revels dedicated be:

Whose soft ears none ought to pierce
But with smooth and gentle verse.
Let the tragic Poem swell,

Raising raging fiends from hell;
And let epic dactyls range

Swelling seas and countries strange :
Little room small things contains,
Easy praise quites easy pains.
Suffer them whose brows do sweat

To gain honour by the great : 1
It's enough if men we name
A retailer of such fame.

1 "By the great "--wholesale.

1

From FRANCIS BEAUMONT'S The
Masque of the Inner Temple,

performed February, 1612-3.1

SONG FOR A DANCE.

HAKE off you heavy trance!

SHA

And leap into a dance

Such as no mortals use to tread :
Fit only for Apollo

To play to, for the moon to lead,
And all the stars to follow!

THE MASQUERS CALLED AWAY.

E should stay longer if we durst:

YE

Away! Alas that he that first

Gave Time wild wings to fly away

Hath now no power to make him stay!

And though these games 2 must needs be played,
I would this pair, when they are laid,

And not a creature nigh 'em,

Could catch his scythe, as he doth pass,
And clip his wings, and break his glass,
And keep him ever by 'em.

1 In honour of the marriage of the Count Palatine with the Princess Elizabeth.

2 "Then loud music sounds, supposed to call them to their Olympian games."