Anthony Munday (1553-1633) and Henry Chettle (c. 1564-c. 1607). Robin Hood's Dirge. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Robin Hood’s Dirge

By Anthony Munday (1553–1633) and Henry Chettle (c. 1564–c. 1607)


WEEP, 1 weep, ye woodmen, wail,
Your hands with sorrow wring;
Your master Robin Hood lies dead,
Therefore sigh as you sing.

Here lies his primer and his beads,	5
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-a, well-a-day, well-a, well-a-day:	10
Thus cast ye flowers fresh and sing,
And on to Wakefield take your way.

Note 1. From Munday and Chettle’s Death of Robin Hood, 1601. [back]