CHIVALRY FOR THE CRADLE.
Reading edition
NO. I—THE ROMAUNT OF HUMPTY-DUMPTY.
TIS midnight, and the moonbeam sleeps
Upon the garden sward:
My lady in yon turret keeps
Her tearful watch and ward.
"Beshrew me!" mutters, turning pale,
The stalwart seneschal;
"What's he that sitteth, clad in mail,
Upon our castle wall?
"Arouse thee, friar of orders gray;
What, ho! bring book and bell!
Ban yonder ghastly thing, I say;
And, look ye, ban it well.
By cock and pye, the Humptys face!"—
The form turn'd quickly round;
Then totter'd from its resting-place—
That night the corse was found.
The king, with hosts of fighting men,
Rode forth at break of day;
Ah! never gleam'd the sun till then
On such a proud array.
But all that army, horse and foot,
Attempted, quite in vain,
Upon the castle wall to put
The Humpty up again.
NO. 2.—A LEGEND OF BANBURY-CROSS.
Started my lord from a slumber and roar'd,
"Sirrah, go bring me my buckler and sword!
Saddle my steed! Ere he next have a feed,
I fackens, the brute will be weary indeed;
For I and my gray must be off and away
To Banbury-Cross at the dawn of the day."
People came down unto Banbury town,
In holiday doublet and holiday gown;
They muster'd in force, as a matter of course,
To see an old woman ride on a white horse.
Sir Thomas the May'r had been heard to declare
It was likely to prove an exciting affair.
Shouts of acclaim from the multitude came,
And clapping of hands for that elderly dame;
Who, as history goes, had the newest of clothes,
And rings on her fingers and bells on her toes.
Ting-a-ting, ting! Ding-a-ding, ding!
There was never beheld such a wonderful thing.
No. 3.—The Ballad of Babye Bunting.
The Knight is away in the merry green wood,
Where he hunts the wild rabbit and roe:
He is fleet in the chase as the late Robin Hood—
He is fleeter in quest of the foe.
The nurse is at home in the castle, and sings
To the babe that she rocks at her breast:
She is crooning of love and of manifold things,
And is bidding the little one rest.
"Oh, slumber, my darling! oh, slumber apace!
For thy father will shortly be here;
And the skin of some rabbit that falls in the chase
Shall be thine for a tippet, my dear."