23 ‘Now holde your handes,’ cride Little John, And soe said Scarlett eke; ‘Our maister is slaine, I tell you plaine, He never more will speake.’ 24 ‘Now, heaven forefend he come to that ende,’ Said Kit, ‘I love him well; But lett him learne to be wise in turne, And not with pore peddlers mell. 25 ‘In my packe, God wot, I a balsame have got That soone his hurts will heale;’ And into Robin Hoods gaping mouth He presentlie powrde some deale. 26 ‘Now fare ye well, tis best not to tell How ye three peddlers met; Or if ye doe, prithee tell alsoe How they made ye swinke and swett.’ 27 Poore Robin in sound they left on the ground, And hied them to Nottingham, While Scarlett and John Robin tended on, Till at length his senses came. 28 Noe soone[r], in haste, did Robin Hood taste The balsame he had tane, Than he gan to spewe, and up he threwe The balsame all againe. 29 And Scarlett and John, who were looking on Their maister as he did lie, Had their faces besmeard, both eies and beard, Therewith most piteously. 30 Thus ended that fray; soe beware alwaye How ye doe challenge foes; Looke well aboute they are not to stoute, Or you may have worst of the blowes. 138 ROBIN HOOD AND ALLEN A DALE #a.# ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Douce, II, leaf 185. #b.# ‘Robin Hood and Allin of Dale,’ Pepys, II, 110, No 97. #c.# ‘Robin Hood and Allen a Dale,’ Douce, III, 119 b. Printed in A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, II, 44, and Evans’s Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 126, after a copy very near to #c#. In Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 46, probably after Roxburghe II, 394. Not included in the garlands of 1663, 1670; in a garland of 1749, the Aldermary garland, R. Marshall, and the Lichfield, M. Morgan, both not dated, No 8; in the York garland, 1811, No 9. In the Kinloch MSS, V, 183, there is a copy, derived from the broadside, but Scotticised, and improved in the process. A young man, Allen a Dale, whom Robin Hood has seen passing, one day singing and the next morning sighing, is stopped by Little John and the Miller’s Son, and brought before their master, who asks him if he has any money. He has five shillings and a ring, and was to have been married the day before, but his bride has been given to an old knight. Robin asks what he will give to get his true-love. All that he can give is his faithful service. Robin goes to the church and declares the match not fit: the bride shall choose for herself. He blows his horn, and four-and-twenty of his men appear, the foremost of whom is Allen a Dale. Robin tells Allen that he shall be married on the spot. The bishop says no; there must be three askings. Robin puts the bishop’s coat on Little John, and Little John asks seven times. Robin gives Allen the maid, and bids the man take her away that dare.