Classic Poem

I AM a merry beggar,
 A beggar I was born,
Tossed about the wild world,
 From evening till morn;
A plaything of the tempest,
 A brother of the knight,
A conqueror, a conjuror.
 When 'tis merry star-light!

Oh! nothing can withstand me,
 Whenever I do stoop,
From the warm heart of the housewife,
 To the chicken in the coop;
From the linen of the lady,
 To the larder of the knight,
All come when I do conjure,
 In the merry star-light!

I pay no tithes to parson,
 Tho' I follow like his clerk;
For he takes his tenths by daylight,
 I take mine in the dark;
I pay the king no window-tax;
 From some it may be right,
But all I do beneath the blue,
 Is by merry star-light!

I roam from lane to common,
 From city unto town,
And I tell a merry story,
 To gentleman or clown:
Each gives me bed or victuals,
 Or ale that glitters bright,
Or—I contrive to borrow them
 By merry star-light!

Oh, the tradesman he is rich, sirs,
 The farmer well to pass,
The soldier he 's a lion,
 The alderman 's an ass;
The courtier he is subtle, sirs,
 And the scholar he is bright;
But who, like me, is ever free
 In the merry star-light?