Chapter II: Preface (1)

The singular circumstance that the name of an outlawed individual of the twelfth or thirteenth century should continue traditionally popular, be chanted in ballads, and, as one may say,

Familiar in our mouth as household words,

at the end of the eighteenth, excited the editor’s curiosity to retrieve all the historical or poetical remains concerning him that could be met with: an object which he has occasionally pursued for many years; and of which pursuit he now publishes the result. He cannot, indeed, pretend that his researches, extensive as they must appear, have been attended with all the success he could have wished; but, at the same time, it ought to be acknowledged that many poetical pieces, of great antiquity and some merit, are deservedly rescued from oblivion.

The materials collected for the “Life” of this celebrated character, which are either preserved at large or carefully referred to in the “Notes and Illustrations,” are not, it must be confessed, in every instance, so important, so ancient, or, perhaps, so authentic, as the subject seems to demand; although the compiler may be permitted to say, in humble second-hand imitation of the poet Martial:

Some there are good, some middling, and some bad; But yet they were the best that could be had.

Desirous to omit nothing that he could find upon the subject, he has everywhere faithfully vouched and exhibited his authorities, such as they are: it would, therefore, seem altogether uncandid or unjust to make him responsible for the want of authenticity of such of them as may appear liable to that imputation.

{i}

THE LIFE OF ROBIN HOOD.

It will scarcely be expected that one should be able to offer an authentic narrative of the life and transactions of this extraordinary personage. The times in which he lived, the mode of life he adopted, and the silence or loss of contemporary writers, are circumstances sufficiently favourable, indeed, to romance, but altogether inimical to historical truth. The reader must, therefore, be contented with such a detail, however scanty or imperfect, as a zealous pursuit of the subject enables one to give; and which, though it may fail to satisfy, may possibly serve to amuse.

No assistance has been derived from the labours of his professed biographers (1);[1] and even the {ii} industrious Sir John Hawkins, from whom the public might have expected ample gratification upon the subject, acknowledges that “the history of this popular hero is but little known, and all the scattered fragments concerning him, could they be brought together, would fall far short of satisfying such an inquirer as none but real and authenticated facts will content. We must,” he says, “take his story as we find it.” He accordingly gives us nothing but two or three trite and trivial extracts, with which every one at all curious about the subject was as well acquainted as himself. It is not, at the same time, pretended, that the present attempt promises more than to bring together the scattered fragments to which the learned historian alludes. This, however, has been done, according to the best of the compiler’s information and abilities; and the result is, with a due sense of the deficiency of both, submitted to the reader’s candour.

* * * * *

ROBIN HOOD was born at Locksley, in the county of Nottingham (2), in the reign of King Henry the Second, and about the year of Christ 1160 (3). His extraction was noble, and his true name ROBERT FITZOOTH, which vulgar pronunciation easily corrupted into ROBIN HOOD (4). He is frequently styled, and commonly reputed to have been, EARL OF HUNTINGDON; a title to which, in the latter part of his life, at least, he actually appears to have had some sort of pretension (5). In his youth he {iii} is reported to have been of a wild and extravagant disposition; insomuch that, his inheritance being consumed or forfeited by his excesses, and his person outlawed for debt, either from necessity or choice, he sought an asylum in the woods and forests, with which immense tracts, especially in the northern parts of the kingdom, were at that time covered (6). Of these, he chiefly affected Barnsdale, in Yorkshire, Sherwood, in Nottinghamshire, and, according to some, Plompton Park, in Cumberland (7). Here he either found, or was afterward joined by, a number of persons in similar circumstances—

“Such as the fury of ungovern’d youth
Thrust from the company of awful men,” (8)

who appear to have considered and obeyed him as their chief or leader, and of whom his principal favourites, or those in whose courage and fidelity he most confided, where Little John (whose surname is said to have been Nailor), William Scadlock (Scathelock or Scarlet), George a Green, pinder (or pound-keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller’s son, and a certain monk or frier named Tuck (9). He is likewise said to have been accompanied in his retreat by a female, of whom he was enamoured, and whose real or adopted name was Marian (10).

His company, in process of time, consisted of a hundred archers; men, says Major, most skilful in battle, whom four times that number of the boldest fellows durst not attack (11). His manner of recruiting was somewhat singular; for, in the words of an {iv} old writer, “whersoever he hard of any that were of unusual strength and ‘hardines,’ he would desgyse himselfe, and, rather then fayle, go lyke a begger to become acquaynted with them; and, after he had tryed them with fyghting, never give them over tyl he had used means to drawe [them] to lyve after his fashion” (12): a practice of which numerous instances are recorded in the more common and popular songs, where, indeed, he seldom fails to receive a sound beating. In shooting with the long bow, which they chiefly practised, “they excelled all the men of the land; though, as occasion required, they had also other weapons” (13).

In those forests, and with this company, he for many years reigned like an independent sovereign; at perpetual war, indeed, with the King of England, and all his subjects, with an exception, however, of the poor and needy, and such as were “desolate and oppressed,” or stood in need of his protection. When molested, by a superior force in one place, he retired to another, still defying the power of what was called law and government, and making his enemies pay dearly, as well for their open attacks, as for their clandestine treachery. It is not, at the same time, to be concluded that he must, in this opposition, have been guilty of manifest treason or rebellion; as he most certainly can be justly charged with neither. An outlaw, in those times, being deprived of protection, owed no allegiance: “his hand was against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (14). {v} These forests, in short, were his territories; those who accompanied and adhered to him his subjects:

“The world was not his friend, nor the world’s law:”

and what better title King Richard could pretend to the territory and people of England than Robin Hood had to the dominion of Barnsdale or Sherwood is a question humbly submitted to the consideration of the political philosopher.

The deer with which the royal forests then abounded (every Norman tyrant being, like Nimrod, “a mighty hunter before the Lord”) would afford our hero and his companions an ample supply of food throughout the year; and of fuel, for dressing their vension, or for the other purposes of life, they could evidently be in no want. The rest of their necessaries would be easily procured, partly by taking what they had occasion for from the wealthy passenger who traversed or approached their territories, and partly by commerce with the neighbouring villages or great towns.

It may be readily imagined that such a life, during great part of the year, at least, and while it continued free from the alarms or apprehensions to which our foresters, one would suppose, must have been too frequently subject, might be sufficiently pleasant and desirable, and even deserve the compliment which is paid to it by Shakespeare in his comedy of _As you like it_ (act i. scene 1), where, on Oliver’s asking, “Where will the old duke live?” Charles answers, “They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and {vi} a many merry men with him; and there they live like the OLD ROBIN HOOD OF ENGLAND; . . . and fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.” Their gallant chief, indeed, may be presumed to have frequently exclaimed with the banished Valentine, in another play of the same author:[2]

“How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
And, to the nightingale’s complaining notes,
Tune my distresses and record my woes.”

He would doubtless, too, often find occasion to add:

“What hallooing and what stir is this to-day?
These are my mates, that make their wills their law,
Have some unhappy passenger in chace:
They love me well; yet I have much to do,
To keep them from uncivil outrages.”

But, on the other hand, it will be at once difficult and painful to conceive,

“――When they did hear
The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
In that their pinching cave, they could discourse
The freezing hours away!” (15).

Their mode of life, in short, and domestic economy, of which no authentic particulars have been even traditionally preserved, are more easily to be guessed at than described. They have, nevertheless, been elegantly sketched by the animating pencil of an excellent though neglected poet:—

{vii}

“The merry pranks he play’d, would ask an age to tell, And the adventures strange that Robin Hood befell, When Mansfield many a time for Robin hath been laid, How he hath cousen’d them, that him would have betray’d; How often he hath come to Nottingham disguis’d, And cunningly escap’d, being set to be surpriz’d. In this our spacious isle, I think there is not one, But he hath heard some talk of him and Little John; And to the end of time, the tales shall ne’er be done, Of Scarlock, George a Green, and Much the miller’s son, Of Tuck the merry frier, which many a sermon made In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade. An hundred valiant men had this brave Robin Hood, Still ready at his call, that bowmen were right good, All clad in Lincoln green (16), with caps of red and blue, His fellow’s winded horn not one of them but knew, When setting to their lips their little beugles shrill, The warbling ecchos wak’d from every dale and hill. Their bauldricks set with studs, athwart their shoulders cast, To which under their arms their sheafs were buckled fast, A short sword at their belt, a buckler scarce a span, Who struck below the knee, not counted then a man: All made of Spanish yew, their bows were wondrous strong; They not an arrow drew, but was a cloth-yard long. Of archery they had the very perfect craft, With broad-arrow, or but, or prick, or roving shaft, At marks full forty score, they us’d to prick, and rove, Yet higher than the breast, for compass never strove; Yet at the farthest mark a foot could hardly win: At long-outs, short, and hoyles, each one could cleave the pin: Their arrows finely pair’d, for timber, and for feather, With birch and brazil piec’d to fly in any weather; And shot they with the round, the square, or forked pile, The loose gave such a twang, as might be heard a mile. And of these archers brave, there was not any one, But he could kill a deer his swiftest speed upon, Which they did boil and roast, in many a mighty wood, Sharp hunger the fine sauce to their more kingly food. {viii} Then taking them to rest, his merry men and he Slept many a summer’s night under the greenwood tree. From wealthy abbots’ chests, and churls’ abundant store, What oftentimes he took, he shar’d amongst the poor: No lordly bishop came in lusty Robin’s way, To him before he went, but for his pass must pay: The widow in distress he graciously reliev’d, And remedied the wrongs of many a virgin griev’d: (17) He from the husband’s bed no married woman wan, But to his mistress dear, his loved Marian, Was ever constant known, which wheresoe’er she came, Was sovereign of the woods; chief lady of the game: Her clothes tuck’d to the knee, and dainty braided hair, With bow and quiver arm’d, she wander’d here and there, Amongst the forests wild; Diana never knew Such pleasures, nor such harts as Mariana slew.”[3]

That our hero and his companions, while they lived in the woods, had recourse to robbery for their better support is neither to be concealed nor to be denied. Testimonies to this purpose, indeed, would be equally endless and unnecessary. Fordun, in the fourteenth century, calls him “_ille famosissimus siccarius_,” that most celebrated robber, and Major terms him and Little John “_famatissimi latrones_.” But it is to be remembered, according to the confession of the latter historian, that, in these exertions of power, he took away the goods of rich men only; never killing any person, unless he was attacked or resisted: that he would not suffer a woman to be maltreated; nor ever took anything from the poor, but charitably fed them with the wealth he drew from the abbots. I disapprove, says he, of the rapine {ix} of the man: but he was the most humane and the prince of all robbers (18). In allusion, no doubt, to this irregular and predatory course of life, he has had the honour to be compared to the illustrious Wallace, the champion and deliverer of his country; and that, it is not a little remarkable, in the latter’s own time (19).

Our hero, indeed, seems to have held bishops, abbots, priests, and monks, in a word, all the clergy, regular or secular, in decided aversion.

“These byshoppes and thyse archebyshoppes,
Ye shall them bete and bynde,”

was an injunction carefully impressed upon his followers. The Abbot of Saint Mary’s, in York (20), from some unknown cause, appears to have been distinguished by particular animosity; and the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire (21), who may have been too active and officious in his endeavours to apprehend him, was the unremitted object of his vengeance.

Notwithstanding, however, the aversion in which he appears to have held the clergy of every denomination, he was a man of exemplary piety, according to the notions of that age, and retained a domestic chaplain (Frier Tuck, no doubt) for the diurnal celebration of the divine mysteries. This we learn from an anecdote preserved by Fordun (22), as an instance of those actions which the historian allows to deserve commendation. One day, as he heard mass, which he was most devoutly accustomed to do (nor would {x} he, in whatever necessity, suffer the office to be interrupted,) he was espied by a certain sheriff and officers belonging to the king, who had frequently before molested him in that most secret recess of the wood where he was at mass. Some of his people, who perceived what was going forward, advised him to fly with all speed, which, out of reverence to the sacrament, which he was then most devoutly worshipping, he absolutely refused to do. But the rest of his men having fled for fear of death, Robin, confiding solely in Him whom he reverently worshipped, with a very few, who by chance were present, set upon his enemies, whom he easily vanquished; and, being enriched with their spoils and ransom, he always held the ministers of the Church and masses in greater veneration ever after, mindful of what is vulgarly said:

“Him God does surely hear
Who oft to th’ mass gives ear.”

Having, for a long series of years, maintained a sort of independent sovereignty, and set kings, judges, and magistrates at defiance, a proclamation was published (23) offering a considerable reward for bringing him in either dead or alive; which, however, seems to have been productive of no greater success than former attempts for that purpose. At length, the infirmities of old age increasing upon him (24), and desirous to be relieved, in a fit of sickness, by being let blood, he applied for that purpose to the Prioress of Kirkleys nunnery in Yorkshire, his {xi} relation (women, and particularly religious women, being, in those times, somewhat better skilled in surgery than the sex is at present), by whom he was treacherously suffered to bleed to death. This event happened on the 18th of November 1247, being the 31st year of King Henry III. and (if the date assigned to his birth be correct) about the 87th of his age (24). He was interred under some trees, at a short distance from the house; a stone being placed over his grave, with an inscription to his memory (25).

Such was the end of Robin Hood: a man who, in a barbarous age, and under a complicated tyranny, displayed a spirit of freedom and independence which has endeared him to the common people, whose cause he maintained (for all opposition to tyranny is the cause of the people), and, in spite of the malicious endeavours of pitiful monks, by whom history was consecrated to the crimes and follies of titled ruffians and sainted idiots, to suppress all record of his patriotic exertions and virtuous acts, will render his name immortal.

With respect to his personal character: it is sufficiently evident that he was active, brave, prudent, patient; possessed of uncommon bodily strength and considerable military skill; just, generous, benevolent, faithful, and beloved or revered by his followers or adherents for his excellent and amiable qualities. Fordun, a priest, extols his piety, Major (as we have seen) pronounces him the most humane and the prince of all robbers; and Camden, whose testimony is of {xii} some weight, calls him “_prædonem mitissimum_,” the gentlest of thieves. As proofs of his universal and singular popularity: his story and exploits have been made the subject as well of various dramatic exhibitions (26), as of innumerable poems, rimes, songs and ballads (27): he has given rise to divers proverbs (28); and to swear by him, or some of his companions, appears to have been a usual practice (29): his songs have been chanted on the most solemn occasions (30); his service sometimes preferred to the Word of God (31): he may be regarded as the patron of archery (32); and, though not actually canonised (a situation to which the miracles wrought in his favour, as well in his lifetime as after his death, and the supernatural powers he is, in some parts, supposed to have possessed (33), give him an indisputable claim), he obtained the principal distinction of sainthood, in having a festival allotted to him, and solemn games instituted in honour of his memory, which were celebrated till the latter end of the sixteenth century; not by the populace only, but by kings or princes and grave magistrates; and that as well in Scotland as in England; being considered, in the former country, of the highest political importance, and essential to the civil and religious liberties of the people, the efforts of government to suppress them frequently producing tumult and insurrection (34). His bow, and one of his arrows, his chair, his cap, and one of his slippers, were preserved, with peculiar veneration, till within {xiii} the present century (35); and not only places which afforded him security or amusement, but even the well at which he quenched his thirst, still retain his name (36): a name which, in the middle of the present century, was conferred as a singular distinction upon the prime minister to the king of Madagascar (37).

After his death his company was dispersed (38). History is silent in particulars: all that we can, therefore, learn is, that the honour of Little John’s death and burial is contended for by rival nations (39); that his grave continued long “celebrous for the yielding of excellent whetstones;” and that some of his descendants, of the name of Nailor, which he himself bore, and they from him, were in being so late as the last century (40).

FOOTNOTES TO “THE LIFE OF ROBIN HOOD”, pp. i–xiii

[1] For Notes, &c., see p. xiv. _et seq._

[2] Two Gentlemen of Verona, act v. scene 4.

[3] Drayton’s Polyolbion, song xxvi.

{xiv}

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING LIFE.

(1) _“Former biographers,” &c._] Such, that is, as have already appeared in print, since a sort of manuscript life in the Sloane Library will appear to have been of some service. The first of these respectable personages is the author, or rather compiler, of “The noble birth and gallant achievements of that remarkable outlaw Robin Hood; together with a true account of the many merry extravagant exploits he played; in twelve several stories: newly collected by an ingenious antiquary. London, printed by W. O.” [William Onley], 4to, black letter, no date. These “several stories,” in fact, are only so many of the songs in the common Garland transposed; and the “ingenious antiquary,” who strung them together, has known so little of his trade, that he sets out with informing us of his hero’s banishment by King Henry the Eighth. The above is supposed to be the “small merry book” called Robin Hood, mentioned in a list of “books, ballads, and histories, printed for and sold by William Thackeray at the Angel in Duck-lane” (about 1680), preserved in one of the volumes of old ballads (part of Bagford’s collection) in the British Museum.

Another piece of biography, from which much will not be expected, is “The lives and heroick atchievements of the renowned Robin Hood and James Hind, two noted robbers and highwaymen. London, 1752.” 8vo. This, however, is probably nothing more than an extract from Johnson’s “Lives of the Highwaymen,” in which, as a specimen of the authors historical authenticity, we have the life and actions of that noted robber, Sir John Falstaff.

{xv}

The principal if not sole reason why our hero is never once mentioned by Matthew Paris, Benedictus Abbas, or any other ancient English historian, was most probably his avowed enmity to churchmen; and history, in former times, was written by none but monks. They were unwilling to praise the actions which they durst neither misrepresent nor deny. Fordun and Major, however, being foreigners, have not been deterred by this professional spirit from rendering homage to his virtues.

(2) —“_was born at Locksley, in the county of Nottingham._”] “Robin Hood,” says a MS. in the British Museum (Bib. Sloan. 715), written, as it seems, toward the end of the sixteenth century, “was borne at Lockesley in Yorkshyre, or after others in Nottinghamshire.” The writer here labours under manifest ignorance and confusion, but the first row of the rubric will set him right:

“In Locksly town, in merry Nottinghamshire,
In merry sweet Locksly town,
There bold Robin Hood was born and was bred,
Bold Robin of famous renown.”[4]

Dr. Fuller (Worthies of England, 1662, p. 320) is doubtful as to the place of his nativity. Speaking of the “Memorable Persons” of Nottinghamshire, “Robert Hood,” says he, “(if not by birth) by his chief abode this country-man.”

The name of such a town as Locksley, or Loxley (for so we sometimes find it spelled), in the county of Nottingham or of York, does not, it must be confessed, occur either in Sir Henry Spelman’s Villare Anglicum. in Adams’s Index Villaris, in Whatley’s England’s Gazetteer,[5] in Thoroton’s History of Nottinghamshire, or in the Nomina Villarum Eboracensium (York, 1768, 8vo). The silence of these authorities is not, however, to be regarded as a conclusive proof that such a place never existed. The names of towns and villages, of which no trace is now to be found but in ancient writings, would fill a volume.

{xvi}

(3) —“_in the reign of King Henry the Second, and about the year of Christ 1160._”] “Robin Hood,” according to the Sloane MS., “was borne . . . in the dayes of Henry the 2nd, about the yeare 1160.” This was the 6th year of that monarch; at whose death (anno 1189) he would, of course, be about 29 years of age. Those writers are therefore pretty correct who represent him as playing his pranks (Dr. Fuller’s phrase) in the reign of King Richard the First, and, according to the last-named author, “about the year of our Lord 1200.”[6] Thus Mair (who is followed by Stowe, Annales, 1592, p. 227), “Circa hæc tempora [sci. Ricardi I.] ut auguror,” &c. A MS. note in the Museum (Bib. Har. 1233), not, in Mr. Wanley’s opinion, to be relied on, places him in the same period, “Temp. Rich. I.” Nor is Fordun altogether out of his reckoning in bringing him down to the time of Henry III., as we shall hereafter see; and with him agrees Andrew of Wyntowne, in his “Oryginale Cronykil,” written about 1420, which, at the year 1283, has the following lines:

“Lytil Jhon and Robyne Hude
Wayth-men were commendyd gud:
In Yngil-wode and Barnysdale
Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.”

A modern writer (History of Whitby, by Lionel Charlton, York, 1779, 4to), though of no authority in this point, has done well enough to speak of him as living “in the days of abbot Richard and Peter his successor;” that is, between the years 1176 and 1211. The author of the two plays upon the story of our hero, of which a particular account will be hereafter given, makes him contemporary with King Richard, who, as well as his brother Prince John, is introduced upon the scene; which is confirmed by another play, quoted in Note 5. Warner, also, in his Albion’s England, 1602, p. 132, refers his existence to “better daies, first Richard’s daies.” This, to be sure, may not be such evidence as would be sufficient to decide the point in a court of justice; but neither judge nor counsel will dispute {xvii} the authority of that oracle of the law Sir Edward Coke, who pronounces that “This Robert Hood lived in the reign of King R. I.” (3 Institute, 197).

We must not therefore regard what is said by such writers as the author of “George a Greene, the pinner of Wakefield,” 1599 (see Note 9), who represents our hero as contemporary with King Edward IV.,[7] and the compiler of a foolish book called “The noble birth, &c. of Robin Hood” (see Note 1), who commences it by informing us of his banishment by King Henry VIII. As well, indeed, might we suppose him to have lived before the time of Charlemagne, because Sir John Harington, in his translation of the Orlando Furioso, 1590, p. 391, has made

“Duke ’Ammon in great wrath thus wise to speake:
This is a Tale indeed of Robin Hood,
Which to beleeve, might show my wits but weake;”

or to imagine his story must have been familiar to Plutarch, because in his Morals, translated by Dr. Philemon Holland, 1603, p. 644, we read the following passage:—“Evenso [_i.e._ as the crane and fox serve each other in Æsop], when learned men at a table plunge and drowne themselves (as it were), in subtile problemes and questions interlaced with logicke, which the vulgar sort are not able for their lives to comprehend and conceive; whiles they also againe for their part come in with their foolish songs, and vain ballads of Robin-Hood and Little John, telling tales of a tubbe, or of a roasted horse, and such like.” Who, indeed, would be apt to think that his skill in archery was known to Virgil? And yet, as interpreted by our facetious friend Mr. Charles Cotton, he tells us that

“Cupid was a little tyny,
Cogging, lying, peevish nynny;
But with a bow the shit-breecht elf
Would shoot like Robin Hood himself.”

In a word, if we are to credit translators, he must have {xviii} existed before the siege of Troy; for thus, according to one of Homer’s:

“Then came a choice companion
Of Robin Hood and Little John,
Who many a buck and many a doe,
In Sherwood forest, with his bow,
Had nabb’d; believe me it is true, sir,
The fellow’s Christian name was Teucer.”

_Iliad_, by Bridges, 4to, p. 231.[8]

This last supposition, indeed, has even the respectable countenance of Dan Geoffrey Chaucer:

“Pandarus answerde, it may be well inough,
And held with him of all that ever he saied,
But in his hart he thought, and soft lough,
And to himselfe full soberly he saied,
From hasellwood there Jolly Robin plaied,
Shall come all that thou abidest here,
Ye, farewell all the snow of ferne yere.”

_Troilus_ (B. 5), Speght’s edition, 1602.

(4) “_His extraction was noble, and his true name Robert Fitzooth._”] In “an olde and auncient pamphlet,” which Grafton the chronicler had seen, it was written that “This man discended of a noble parentage.” The Sloane MS. says “He was of . . . . parentage;” and though the material word is illegible, the sense evidently requires noble. So, likewise, the Harleian note: “It is said that he was of noble blood.” Leland also has expressly termed him “nobilis” (Collectanea, i. 54). The following account of his family will be found sufficiently particular. Ralph Fitzothes, or Fitzooth, a Norman, who had come over to England with William Rufus, married Maud or Matilda, daughter of Gilbert de Gaunt, Earl of Kyme and Lindsey, by whom he had two sons: Philip, afterward Earl of Kyme, that earldom being part of his mother’s dowry, and William. Philip the elder died without issue; William was a ward to Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in whose household he received his education, and who, by the king’s express command, gave {xix} him in marriage to his own niece, the youngest of the three daughters of the celebrated Lady Roisia de Vere, daughter of Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Guisnes in Normandy, and lord high chamberlain of England under Henry I., and of Adeliza, daughter to Richard de Clare, Earl of Clarence and Hertford, by Payn de Beauchamp, baron of Bedford, her second husband. The offspring of this marriage was our hero, Robert Fitzooth, commonly called Robin Hood. (See Stukeley’s Palæographia Britannica, No. I. passim.)

A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for March 1793, under the signature D. H.,[9] pretends that Hood is only a corruption of “o’ th’ wood, q.d. of Sherwood.” This, to be sure, is an absurd conceit; but, if the name were a matter of conjecture, it might be probably enough referred to some particular sort of hood our hero wore by way of distinction or disguise. See Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 522. In Jonson’s masque of “The king’s entertainment at Welbeck” (Works, 1756, vii. 53), certain characters are introduced “in livery hoods,” of whom Fitz-ale says,

“Six hoods they are, and of the blood,
They tell of ancient Robin Hood.”

It may be remembered that Hugh _Capet_, the first king of France of the third and last race, obtained that surname from a similar circumstance. It is unnecessary to add that Hood is a common surname at this day, as well as a place in Yorkshire, formerly _Hode_; and that Edward the Third, in the tenth year of his reign, confirmed to Thomas, the son of _Robert de Hode_, of Hoveden, in tail-general, certain places of moorland, _&c._ _in vasto de_ Incklesmore, _&c._ (Ro. Pa. 10 E. 3. m. 31).

(5) “_He is frequently styled . . . Earl of Huntingdon, a title to which, for the latter part of his life at least, he actually appears to have had some sort of pretension._”] In Grafton’s “olde and auncient pamphlet,” though the author had, as already noticed, said “this man discended of a NOBLE PARENTAGE,” he adds, “or rather beyng of a base stocke {xx} and linage, was for his manhood and chivalry advaunced to the noble dignitie of an ERLE.”

In the MS. note (Bib. Har. 1233) is the following passage: “It is said that he was of noble blood no lesse then an earle.” Warner, in his Albion’s England, already cited, calls him “a county.” The titles of Mundy’s two plays are: “The downfall” and “The death of Robert earle of Huntington.” He is likewise introduced in that character in the same author’s Metropolis Coronata, hereafter cited. In his epitaph we shall find him expressly styled “Robert, Earl of Huntingtun.”

In “A pleasant commodie called Looke about you,” printed in 1600, our hero is introduced, and performs a principal part. He is represented as the young Earl of Huntington, and in ward to Prince Richard, though his brother Henry, the young king, complains of his having “had wrong about his wardship.” He is described as

“A gallant youth, a proper gentleman;”

and is sometimes called “pretty earle” and “little wag.” One of the characters thus addresses him:

“But welcome, welcome, and young Huntington,
Sweet Robyn Hude, honor’s best flowing bloome,”

and calls him

“――an honourable youth,
Vertuous and modest, Huntington’s right heyre.”

It is also said that

“His father Gilbert was the smoothst fac’t lord
That ere bare armes in England or in Fraunce.”

In one scene, “Enter Richard and Robert with coronets.”

“_Rich._ Richard the Prince of England, with his ward, The noble Robert Hood, earle Huntington, Present their service to your majestie.”

Dr. Percy’s objection, that the most ancient poems make no mention of this earldom,[10] but only call him a yeoman, will be considered in another place. How he founded his pretensions to this title will be seen in his pedigree. Here it is. {xxi}

[Transcriber’s Note] The following is a Distributed Proofreaders transcription of the pedigree chart printed in the original book.

1 Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare, earl of Brien; m. Roisia.

11 Robert Fitzgilbert; m. Alice (22).

12 Roisia; m. Gilbert de Gaunt, earl of Kyme and Lindsey came in
with the conquerer.

121 Walter de Gaunt earl of Lindsey.

1211 Gilbert de Gaunt earl of Lincoln; m. Avis dau. and heir of
William de Romara e. of Lincoln.

12111 Alice heiress; m. Simon S. lis III. earl of Huntingdon
and Northton (2121). ob. s. p 1184.

122 Maud; m. Ralf Fitzooth a Norman, lord of Kyme.

1221 Philip Fitzooth, lord of Kyme, ob. s. p.

1222 William Fitzooth, brought up by Robert earl of Oxford; m. a
daughter of Payn Beauchamp and lady Roisia de Vere.

12221 ROBERT FITZOOTH, commonly called ROBIN HOOD, pretended
earl of Huntington, ob. 1274 [1247].[11]

2 I. Waltheof earl of Northumberland and Huntington; m. Judith countess of Huntington, the conqueror’s niece.

21 Maud; m. II. Simon de S. lis I. earl of Northampton and
Huntingdon; m. III. David I. king of Scots, earl of Huntingdon;

211 IV. Henry earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon; son of Maud
and David; m. Ada daughter of William earl of Warren.

2111 VI. Malcolm IV. king of Scots, earl of Northumberland and
Huntingdon.

2112 VII. William earl of Huntingdon.

2113 IX. David earl of “Carrick” and Huntingdon, son of Henry
IV. (above) earl and of Ada. ob. 1219.

21131 X. John sirnamed Scot his son, earl of Angus and
Huntingdon, ob. s. p. 1237.

212 V. Simon S. lis II.; son of Simon and Maud; m. Isabel dau. of
Robert Bossu earl of Leicester.

2121 VIII. Simon S. lis III. earl of Huntingdon and Northton.
ob. s. P. 1184; m. Alice heiress (12111).

22 Alice; m. Robert Fizgilbert (11), son of Richard Fitzgilbert and
Roisia.

[End Transcriber’s Note]

{xxii}

(6) _“In his youth he is reported to have been of a wild and extravagant disposition,” &c._] Grafton’s pamphlet, after supposing him to have been “advaunced to the noble dignitie of an erle,” continued thus: “But afterwardes he so prodigally exceeded in charges and expences, that he fell into great debt, by reason whereof, so many actions and sutes were commenced against him whereunto he answered not, that by {xxiii} order of lawe he was outlawed.”[12] Leland must undoubtedly have had good authority for calling him “nobilis ille exlex.”[13] Fordun supposes him in the number of those deprived of their estates by King Henry III. “Hoc intempore,” says he, “de exheredatis surrexit & caput erexit ille famosissimus siccarius Robertus Hode & littill Johanne cum eorum complicibus” (p. 774). The Sloane MS. says he was “so ryotous that he lost or sould his patrimony & for debt became an outlawe;” and the Harleian note mentions his “having wasted his estate in riotous courses.” The former authority, however, gives a different, though, it may be, less credible, account of his being obliged to abscond. It is as follows: “One of his first exployts was the going abrode into a forrest & bearing with him a bowe of exceeding great strength, he fell into company with certayne rangers or woodmen, who fell to quarrel with him, as making showe to use such a bowe as no man was able to shoote withall. Whereto Robin replyed that he had two better then that at Lockesley, only he bare that with him nowe as a byrding bowe. At length the ‘contention’ grewe so hote that there was a wager layd about the kyllyng of a deere a greate distance of, for performance whereof Robin offered to lay his head to a certayne some of money, the advantage of which rash speach the others presently tooke. So the marke being found out, one of them, both to make his hart faynt and hand unsteady, as he was about to shoote urged him with the losse of head if he myst the marke. Notwithstanding Robyn kyld the deare, and gave every man his {xxiv} money agayne, save to him which at the poynt of shooting so upbraided him with danger to loose his hed for that wager; & he sayd they would drinke togeyther: whereupon the others stomached the matter and from quarelling they grewe to fighting with him. But Robin, getting him somewhat of, with shooting dispatch them, and so fled away; and then betaking himselfe to lyve in the woods,” &c.[14]

That he lurked or infested the woods is agreed by all. “Circa hæc tempora,” says Major, “Robertus Hudus Anglus & parvus Joannes, latrones famatissimi, in nemoribus latuerunt.”

Dr. Stukeley says that “Robin Hood took to this wild way of life in imitation of his grandfather Geoffrey de Mandeville, who being a favorer of Maud empress, King Stephen took him prisoner at S. Albans, and made him give up the tower of London, Walden, Plessis, &c., upon which he lived on plunder” (MS. note in his copy of Robin Hood’s Garland).

(7) _“Of these, he chiefly affected Barnsdale,” &c._] “Along on the lift hond,” says Leland, “a iii. miles of betwixt Milburne and Feribridge I saw the wooddi and famose forrest of Barnesdale, wher thay say that Robyn Hudde lyvid like an outlaw” (Itinerary, v. 101).

“They haunted about Barnsdale forrest, Compton [r. Plompton] parke,[15] and such other places” (MS. Sloane).

“His principal residence,” says Fuller, “was in Shirewood forrest in this county [Notts], though he had another haunt (he is no fox that hath but one hole) near the sea in the North Riding in Yorkshire, where Robin Hood’s Bay still retaineth his name: not that he was any pirat, but a land-thief, who retreated to those unsuspected parts for his security” (Worthies of England, p. 320). {xxv}

In Thoroton’s Nottinghamshire, p. 505, is some account of the ancient and present state of Sherwood forest; but one looks in vain through that dry detail of land-owners for any particulars relating to our hero. “In anno domini 1194, King Richard the First, being a hunting in the forrest of Sherwood, did chase a hart out of the forrest of Sherwood into Barnesdale in Yorkshire, and because he could not there recover him, he made proclamation at Tickill in Yorkshire, and at divers other places there, that no person should kill, hurt, or chase the said hart, but that he might safely retorne into forrest againe, which hart was afterwards called a hart-royall proclaimed” (Manwood’s Forest Laws, 1598, p. 25, from “an auncient recorde” found by him in the tower of Nottingham Castle).[16]

(8) _“Here he either found,” &c._] After being outlawed, Grafton tells us, “for a lewde shift, as his last refuge, [he] gathered together a companye of roysters and cutters, and practised robberyes and spoyling of the kinges subjects, and occupied and frequented the forestes or wild countries.” See also the following note.

(9) “_Little John, William Scadlock, George a Green, pinder of Wakefield, Much a miller’s son, and a certain monk or frier named Tuck._”] Of these, the pre-eminence is incontestably due to Little John, whose name is almost constantly coupled with that of his gallant leader. “Robertus Hode & littill Johanne,” are mentioned together by Fordun as early as 1341; and later instances of the connection would be almost endless. After the words, “for debt became an {xxvi} outlaw,” the Sloane MS. adds: “then joyninge to him many stout fellowes of lyke disposition, amongst whom one called Little John was principal or next to him, they haunted about Barnsdale forrest,” &c. See Notes 39, 40.

With respect to Frier Tuck, “thogh some say he was an other kynd of religious man, for that the order of freyrs was not yet sprung up” (MS. Sloan.), yet as the Dominican friers (or friers preachers) came into England in the year 1221, upward of twenty years before the death of Robin Hood, and several orders of these religious had flourished abroad for some time, there does not seem much weight in that objection: nor, in fact, can one pay much regard to the term frier, as it seems to have been the common title given by the vulgar (more especially after the Reformation) to all the regular clergy, of which the friers were at once the lowest and most numerous. If Frier Tuck be the same person who, in one of the oldest songs, is called the curtail frier of Fountains-dale, he must necessarily have been one of the monks of that abbey, which was of the Cistercian order. However this may be, Frier Tuck is frequently noticed by old writers as one of the companions of Robin Hood, and as such was an essential character in the morris-dance (see Note 34). He is thus mentioned by Skelton, laureat, in his “goodly interlude” of Magnificence, written about the year 1500, and with an evident allusion to some game or practice now totally forgotten and inexplicable:

“Another bade shave halfe my berde,
And boyes to the pylery gan me plucke,
And wolde have made me freer Tucke,
To preche oute of the pylery hole.”

In the year 1417, as Stow relates, “one, by his counterfeite name, called Frier Tucke, with manie other malefactors, committed many robberies in the counties of Surrey & Sussex, whereupon the king sent out his writs for their apprehension” (Annales, 1592).

George a Green is George o’ the green, meaning perhaps the town-green, in which the pound or pinfold stood of which he had the care. He has been particularly celebrated, and {xxvii} “As good as George a Green” is still a common saying.[17] Drayton, describing the progress of the river Calder, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, has the following lines:

“It chanc’d she in her course on ‘Kirkley’ cast her eye,
Where merry Robin Hood, that honest thief, doth lie;
Beholding fitly too before how Wakefield stood,
She doth not only think of lusty Robin Hood,
But of his merry man, the pindar of the town
Of Wakefield, George a Green, whose fames so far are blown
For their so valiant fight, that every freeman’s song
Can tell you of the same; quoth she, be talk’d on long,
For ye were merry lads, and those were merry days.”

Thus, too, Richard Brathwayte, in his poetical epistle “to all true-bred northerne sparks of the generous society of the Cottoneers” (Strappado for the Divell, 1615):

“But haste, my muse, in colours to display
Some auncient customes in their high-roade way,

* * * * *

At least such places labour to make knowne
As former times have honour’d with renowne.

* * * * *

The first whereof that I intend to show
Is merry Wakefield, and her pindar too,
Which fame hath blaz’d with all that did belong,
Unto that towne in many gladsome song,
The pindar’s valour, and how firme he stood
In th’ townes defence ’gainst th’ rebel Robin Hood,
How stoutly he behav’d himselfe, and would,
In spite of Robin, bring his horse to th’ fold,
His many May-games which were to be seene
Yearly presented upon Wakefield greene,
Where lovely Jugge and lustie Tib would go,
To see Tom-lively turne upon the toe;
Hob, Lob, and Crowde the fidler would be there,
And many more I will not speake of here.
Good God! how glad hath been this hart of mine,
To see that towne, which hath, in former time,
So flourish’d and so gloried in her name,
Famous by th’ pindar who first rais’d the same!
Yea, I have paced ore that greene and ore
And th’ more I saw’t I tooke delight the more, {xxviii}
For where we take contentment in a place,
A whole daies walke seemes as a cinquepace.
Yet as there is no solace upon earth
Which is attended evermore with mirth,
But when we are transported most with gladnesse,
Then suddenly our joy’s reduc’d to sadnesse;
So far’d with me to see the pindar gone,
And of those jolly laddes that were not one
Left to survive: I griev’d more then Ile say:
(But now for Bradford I must hast away).

* * * * *

Unto thy task, my muse, and now make knowne
The jolly shoo-maker of Bradford towne,
His gentle craft so rais’d in former time
By princely journey-men his discipline,
Where he was wont with passengers to quaffe,
But suffer none to carry up their staffe
Upon their shoulders, whilst they past through town,
For if they did he soon would beat them downe;
(So valiant was the souter) and from hence
Twixt Robin Hood and him grew th’ difference;
Which, cause it is by most stage-poets writ,
For brevity I thought good to omit.”

In the latter part of this extract, honest Richard evidently alludes to “A pleasant conceyted comedie of George a Greene, the pinner of Wakefield; as it was sundry times acted by the servants of the right honourable the earle of Sussex,” 1599, 4to, which has been erroneously ascribed to Heywood the epigrammatist, and is reprinted, with other trash, in the late edition of Dodsley’s Old Plays; only it unluckily happens that Robin Hood is almost the only person who has no difference with the souter (or shoemaker) of Bradford. The play, in short (or at least that part of it which we have any concern with), is founded on the ballad of Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield (see part ii. song 3), which it directly quotes, and is, in fact, a most despicable performance.[18] King Edward (the Fourth) having taken King James of Scotland prisoner, after a most bloody battle near Middleham Castle, from which of 30,000 Scots not 5000 had escaped, comes with his royal captive in disguise to Bradford, where they {xxix} meet Robin Hood and George a Green, who have just had a stout affray: and after having read this, and a great deal more such nonsensical stuff, Captain Grose sagaciously “supposes that this play has little or no foundation in history;” and very gravely sits down and debates his opinion in form.

“The history of George a Green, pindar of the town of Wakefield,” 4to, no date,[19] is a modern production, chiefly founded on the old play just mentioned, of neither authority nor merit.

Our gallant pinder is thus facetiously commemorated by Drunken Barnaby:

“Hinc diverso cursu, sero
Quod audissem de pindero
Wakefeeldensi; gloria mundi,
Ubi socii sunt jucundi,
Mecum statui peragrare
Georgii fustem visitare.”

“Turning thence, none could me hinder
To salute the Wakefield pindar;
Who indeed is the world’s glory,
With his comrades never sorry.
This was the cause, lest you should miss it,
George’s club I meant to visit.”

“Veni Wakefield peramænum,
Ubi quærens Georgium Greenum,
Non inveni, sed in lignum
Fixum reperi Georgii signum,
Ubi allam bibi feram
Donec Georgio fortior eram.”

“Strait at Wakefield I was seen a,
Where I sought for George a Green a;
But could find not such a creature,
Yet on a sign I saw his feature,
Where strength of ale had so much stir’d me,
That I grew stouter far than Jordie.”

Besides the companions of our hero enumerated in the text, and whose names are most celebrated and familiar, we find those of William of Goldsbrough (mentioned by Grafton), Right-hitting Brand (by Mundy), and Gilbert with the white {xxx}

hand, who is thrice named in the Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode (i. 52, 71), and is likewise noticed by Bishop Gawin Douglas in his Palice of Honour, printed at Edinburgh in 1579, but written before 1518:

“Thair saw I Maitlaind upon auld Beird Gray,
Robene Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand,
How Hay of Nauchton slew, in Madin land.”[20]

As no mention is made of Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslie, either in the ancient legend or in more than one of the numerous songs of Robin Hood, nor does the name of the latter once occur in the old metrical history of those famous archers reprinted in Percy’s Reliques, and among pieces of ancient popular poetry, it is to be concluded that they flourished at different periods, or at least had no connection with each other. In a poem, however, intitled, “Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and young William of Cloudesley, the second part,” 1616, 4to, b. l. (Bib. Bod. Art. L. 71, being a more modern copy than that in Selden C. 39, which wants the title, but was probably printed with the first part, which it there accompanies, in 1605; differing considerably therefrom in several places, and containing many additional verses), are the following lines (not in the former copy):

“Now beare thy father’s heart, my boy,
Said William of Cloudesley then,
When i was young i car’d not for
The brags of sturdiest men.
The pinder of Wakefield, George a Green,
I try’d a sommer’s day,
Yet he nor i were victors made
Nor victor’d went away.
Old Robin Hood, nor Little John,
Amongst their merry men all,
Nor fryer Tuck, so stout and young,
My courage could appall.”

(10) “_Marian._”] Who or whatever this lady was, it is observable that no mention of her occurs either in the Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, or in any other poem or song {xxxi} concerning him, except the not very old ballad of Robin Hood’s Golden Prize, where she is barely named, and a still more modern one of no merit (see part ii. song 24).[21] She is an important character, however, in the two old plays of The death and downfall of Robert earl of Huntington, written before 1600, and is frequently mentioned by dramatic or other writers about that period. Her presence, likewise, was considered as essential to the morris-dance. See Note 34.

In the _First Part of King Henry IV._ Falstaff says to the hostess, “There’s no more faith in thee than in a stew’d prune; nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy’s wife of the ward to thee;” upon which Dr. Johnson observes, that “Maid Marian is a man dressed like a woman, who attends the dancers of the morris.” “In the ancient songs of Robin Hood,” says Percy, “frequent mention is made of Maid Marian, who appears to have been his concubine. I could quote,” adds he, “many passages in my old MS. to this purpose, but shall produce only one:[22]

‘Good Robin Hood was living then,
Which now is quite forgot,
And so was fayre Maid Marian,’ &c.”

Mr. Steevens, too, after citing the old play of “The downfall of Robert earl of Huntington,” 1601, to prove “that Maid Marian was originally a name assumed by Matilda, the daughter of Robert, Lord Fitzwater, while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry,” observes, that “Shakespeare speaks of Maid Marian in her degraded state, when she was {xxxii} represented by a strumpet or a clown;” and refers to figure 2 in the plate at the end of the play, with Mr. Tollet’s observations on it. The widow, in Sir W. Davenant’s “Love and Honour,” says, “I have been Mistress Marian in a maurice ere now;” and Mr. Warton[23] quotes an old piece, entitled “Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Maid Marian, and Hereford town for a morris-dance: or 12 morris-dancers in Herefordshire of 1200 years old,” London, 1609, 4to, which is dedicated, he says, to one Hall, a celebrated tabourer in that country.[24] See Note 34.

(11) _“His company,” &c._] See the entire passage quoted from Major in a subsequent note. “By such bootyes as he could get,” says the writer of the Sloane MS., “his company encreast to an hundred and a halfe.”