Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/646

'O, Brignall banks are fresh and fair,
  And Greta woods are green!
I'd rather rove with Edmund there
  Than reign our English Queen.'

'If, Maiden, thou wouldst wend with me
  To leave both tower and town,
Thou first must guess what life lead we,
  That dwell by dale and down:
And if thou canst that riddle read,
  As read full well you may,
Then to the green-wood shalt thou speed
  As blithe as Queen of May.'

Yet sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair,
  And Greta woods are green!
I'd rather rove with Edmund there
  Than reign our English Queen.

'I read you by your bugle horn
  And by your palfrey good,
I read you for a Ranger sworn
  To keep the King's green-wood.'
'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,
  And 'tis at peep of light;
His blast is heard at merry morn,
  And mine at dead of night.'

Yet sung she, 'Brignall banks are fair,
  And Greta woods are gay!
I would I were with Edmund there,
  To reign his Queen of May!

'With burnish'd brand and musketoon
  So gallantly you come,