world of poetry, delight,
and humor. And I lived and took my joy in that rare world, until all
too soon my reading was done.

My most earnest wish is that there may be many minds and imaginations
among the American people who will be able to share that pleasure with
me. For every one who finds delight in this book I can claim as a
kindred spirit.

J. D. Beresford.

CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction
Prologue--Part I
Part II
Part III
Prelude to the First Tale
The First Tale: The King's Barn
First Interlude
The Second Tale: Young Gerard
Second Interlude
The Third Tale: The Mill of Dreams
Third Interlude
The Fourth Tale: Open Winkins
Fourth Interlude
The Fifth Tale: Proud Rosalind and the Hart-Royal
Fifth Interlude
The Sixth Tale: The Imprisoned Princess
Postlude--Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Epilogue
Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

In Adversane in Sussex they still sing the song of The Spring-Green
Lady; any fine evening, in the streets or in the meadows, you may come
upon a band of children playing the old game that is their heritage,
though few of them know its origin, or even that it had one. It is to
them as the daisies in the grass and the stars in the sky. Of these
things, and such as these, they ask no questions. But there you will
still find one child who takes the part of the Emperor's Daughter, and
another who is the Wandering Singer, and the remaining group (there
should be no more than six in it) becomes the Spring-Green Lady, the
Rose-White Lady, the Apple-Gold Lady, of the three parts of the game.
Often there are more than six in the group, for the true number of the
damsels who guarded their fellow in her prison is as forgotten as their
names: Joscelyn, Jane and Jennifer, Jessica, Joyce and Joan. Forgotten,
too, the name of Gillian, the lovely captive. And the Wandering Singer
is to them but the Wandering Singer, not Martin Pippin the Minstrel.
Worse and worse, he is even presumed to be the captive's sweetheart,
who wheedles the flower, the ring, and the prison-key out of the strict
virgins for his own purposes, and flies with her at last in his shallop
across the sea, to live with her happily ever after. But this is a
fallacy. Martin Pippin never wheedled anything out of anybody for his
own purposes--in fact, he had none of his own. On this adventure he was
about the business of young Robin Rue. There are further dis