The gossips liked this fare so well that she never wanted company;
wine had she of all sorts, muskadine, sack, malmsey, claret, white and
bastard; this pleased her neighbours well, so that few that came to see
her, but they had home with them a medicine for the fleas. Sweetmeats too
had they in such abundance that some of their teeth are rotten to this day;
and for music she wanted not, or any other thing she desired.
All praised this honest fairy for his care, and the child for his beauty,
and the mother for a happy woman. In brief, christened he was, at the which
all this good cheer was doubled, which made most of the women so wise, that
they forgot to make themselves unready, and so lay in their clothes; and
none of them next day could remember the child's name but the clerk, and he
may thank his book for it, or else it had been utterly lost. So much for
the birth of little Robin.
OF ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW'S BEHAVIOUR WHEN HE WAS YOUNG
When Robin was grown to six years of age, he was so knavish that all the
neighbours did complain of him; for no sooner was his mother's back turned,
but he was in one knavish action or other, so that his mother was
constrained (to avoid the complaints) to take him with her to market, or
wheresoever she went or rode. But this helped little or nothing, for if he
rode before her, then would he make mouths and ill-favoured faces at those
he met; if he rode behind her, then would he clap his hand on his tail; so
that his mother was weary of the many complaints that came against him, yet
knew she not how to beat him justly for it, because she never saw him do
that which was worthy blows.
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