Allen-a-Dale has no fagot for burning, Allen-a-Dale has no furrow for turning, Allen-a-Dale has no fleece for the spinning,Yet Allen-a-Dale has red gold for the winning. Come, read my riddle! Come, hearken my tale! And tell me the craft of bold Allen-a-Dale.
The Baron of Ravensworth prances in pride, And he views his domains upon Arkindale side; The mere for his net, and the land for his game, The chase for the wild and the park for the tame; Yet the fish of the lake and the deer of the vale Are less free to Lord Dacre than Allen-a-dale!
Allen-a-Dale was ne"er belted a knight,
Though his spur be as sharp and his blade be as bright; Allen-a-Dale is no baron or lord,Yet twenty tall yeomen will draw at his word; And the best of our nobles his bonnet will vail,Who at Rere-cross on Stanmore meets Allen-a-dale.
Allen-a-Dale to his wooing is come;
The mother, she asked of his household and home.
" Though the castle of Richmond stand fair on the hill,My hall,"quoth bold Allen, "shows gallanter still;" Tis the blue vault of heaven, with its crescent so pale,And with all its bright spangles!" said Allen-a-Dale.
The father was steel, and the mother was stone; They lifted the latch, and they bade him begone. But loud, on the morrow, their wail and their cry!
He had laughed on the lass with his bonnie black eye;And she fled to the forest to hear a love-tale,And the youth it was told by was Allen-a-Dale!
- Sir Walter Scott
Author.-Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the greatest of Scottish novelists and one of the greatest of Scottish poets, was born at Edinburgh. Nearly all of his works deal with history, his chief poems being-The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, The Lady of the Lake, Rokeby, Lord of the Isles; his chief prose works Waverley, the Heart of Midlothian, Ivanhoe, and Quentin Durward. He wrote also a History of Scotland and Tales of a Grandfather. "Scott exalted and purified the novel, and made Scotland known throughout the world." He has been called the "Wizard of the North."General Notes.-This is a song sung by a minstrel to the accompani- ment of the harp. It comes in the longer poem, Rokeby. Here is the story of Allen-a-dale told in prose: Allen-a-dale, of Nottinghamshire, was to be married to a lady who returned his love, but her parents compelled her to forgo young Allen for an old knight of wealth. Allen told his tale to Robin Hood, and the bold forester, in the disguise of a harper, went to the church where the wedding ceremony was to take place. When the wedding party stepped in, Robin Hood exclaimed, " This is no fit match; the bride shall be married only to the man of her choice." Then he sounded his horn, and Allen-a-dale with four-and-twenty bowmen entered the church. The bishop refused to marry the woman to Allen till the banns had been asked three times, whereupon Robin pulled off the bishop"s gown and invested Little John in it, who asked the banns seven times, and performed the ceremony.
Notes on the Places Mentioned.-The ruins of the castle of Ravensworthare in the north of Yorkshire, about 3 miles from the town of Richmond. Near the castle is the forest of Arkingarth. The castle belonged at first to the powerful family of Fitz-Hugh, from whom it passed to the family of Dacre. Rere-cross was an old cross erected upon the ridge of Stanmore; it is said that at one time it marked the boundary between the kingdoms of England and Scotland.
