Robin, my only son and heir,
How to live take thou no care:
By nature thou hast cunning shifts,
Which I'll increase with other gifts.
Wish what thou wilt, thou shalt it have;
And for to vex both fool and knave,
Thou hast the power to change thy shape,
To horse, to hog, to dog, to ape.
Transformed thus, by any means
See none thou harm'st but knaves and queans;
But love thou those that honest be,
And help them in necessity.
Do thus, and all the world shall know
The pranks of Robin Good-fellow;
For by that name thou called shalt be
To age's last posterity.
If thou observe my just command,
One day thou shalt see Fairy Land.
This more I give: who tells thy pranks
From those that hear them shall have thanks.
Robin having read this was very joyful, yet longed he to know whether he
had this power or not, and to try it he wished for some meat: presently[3]
it was before him. Then wished he for beer and wine: he straightway had it.
This liked him well, and because he was weary, he wished himself a horse:
no sooner was his wish ended, but he was transformed, and seemed a horse of
twenty pound price, and leaped and curveted as nimble as if he had been in
stable at rack and manger a good month. Then wished he himself a dog, and
was so: then a tree, and was so: so from one thing to another, till he was
certain and well assured that he could change himself to any thing
whatsoever.
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