Chapter IV: Preface (3)

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The next quotation may be of service to Dr. Percy, who {lxiii} has been pleased to question our hero’s nobility, because “the most ancient poems make no mention of this earldom,” and the old legend expressly asserts him “to have been a yeoman.” It is very true; and we shall here not only find his title established, but also discover the secret of his not being usually distinguished or designed by it.

“_Enter Roben Hoode._

_King._ How now, earle Robert!

_Fri._ A forfet, a forfet, my liege lord, My master’s lawes are on record, The court-roll here your grace may see.

_King._ I pray thee, frier, read them mee.

_Fri._ One shall suffice, and this is hee. No man that commeth in this wod, To feast or dwell with Robin Hood, Shall call him earle, lord, knight, or squire, He no such titles doth desire, But Robin Hood, plain Robin Hoode, That honest yoeman, stout and good, On paine of forfetting a marke, That must be paid to mee his clarke. My liege, my liege, this lawe you broke, Almost in the last word you spoke; That crime may not acquitted bee, Till Frier Tuck receive his fee.”

Now, the reason that “the most ancient poems make no mention of this earldom,” and the old legend expressly asserts him “to have been a yeoman,” appears, plainly enough, to be, that as, pursuant to his own injunction, he was never called, either by his followers, or in the vicinity, by any other name than Robin Hood, so particularly the minstrels, who were always, no doubt, welcome to Sherwood,[49] {lxiv} and liberally entertained by him and his yeomanry, would take special care never to offend against the above law: which puts an end to the dispute.—Q. E. D.

Our hero is, at length, poisoned by a drink which Doncaster and the prior, his uncle, had prepared for him to give to the king. His departing scene and last dying speech are beautiful and pathetic.

“_Rob._ Inough, inough, Fitzwater, take your child. My dying frost, which no sunnes heat can thawe, Closes the powers of all my outward parts; My freezing blood runnes back into my heart, Where it assists death, which it would resist: Only my love a little hinders death, For he beholds her eyes, and cannot smite.

* * * * *

_Mat._ O let mee looke for ever in thy eyes, And lay my warme breath to thy bloodlesse lips, If my sight can restraine death’s tyrannies, Or keep lives breath within thy bosome lockt.”

He desires to be buried

“At Wakefield, underneath the abbey-wall;”

directs the manner of his funeral; and bids his yeomen,

“For holy dirges, sing ‘him’ wodmen’s songs.”

The king, upon the earl’s death, expresses his sorrow for the tragical event; ratifies the will; repeats the directions for the funeral; and says,

“Fall to your wod-songs, therefore, yeomen bold,
And deck his herse with flowers, that lov’d you deere.”

The whole concludes with the following solemn dirge:

“Weepe, weepe, ye wod-men waile,
Your hands with sorrow wring;
Your master Robin Hood lies deade,
Therefore sigh as you sing. {lxv}
“Here lies his primer, and his beades,
His bent bowe, and his arrowes keene,
His good sworde and his holy crosse:
Now cast on flowers fresh and greene.

“And, as they fall, shed teares and say,
Well a, well a day, well a, well a day!
Thus cast yee flowers and sing,
And on to Wakefield take your way.”

The poet then prosecutes the legend of Matilda, who is finally poisoned, by the procurement of King John, in Dunmow Priory.

The story of this lady, whom the author of these plays is supposed to have been the first that converted into the character of Maid Marian, or connected in any shape with the history of Robin Hood, is thus related by Stow, under the year 1213: “The chronicle of Dunmow sayth, this discord arose betwixt the king and his barons, because of Mawd called the faire, daughter to Robert Fitzwalter, whome the king loved, but her father would not consent; and thereupon ensued warre throughout England. . . . . . Whilst Mawd the faire remayned at Dunmow, there came a messenger unto her from King John about his suite in love, but because she would not agree, the messenger poysoned a boyled or potched egge against she was hungrie, whereof she died” (Annales, 1592). Two of Drayton’s heroical epistles pass between King John and Matilda. He has also written her legend.

4. “Robin Hood’s penn’orths, by Wm. Haughton.”[50]

5. “Metropolis coronata, the triumphs of ancient drapery: or, rich cloathing of England, in a second yeeres performance. In honour of the advancement of Sir John Jolles, knight, to the high office of lord maior of London, and taking his oath for the same authoritie, on Monday being the 30. day of October, 1615. Performed in heartie affection to him, and at the bountifull charges of his worthy brethren the truely honourable society of drapers, the first that received such dignitie, in this citie. Devised and written by A. M. {lxvi} [Anthony Mundy] citizen and draper of London.” 1615, 4to.

This is one of the pageants formerly usual on Lord Mayor’s day, and of which several are extant, written as well by our author Mundy,[51] as by Middleton, Dekker, Heywood, and other hackney dramatists of that period. They were thought of such consequence that the City had for some time (though probably not till after the Restoration) a professed laureat for their composition; an office which expired with Elkanah Settle in 1723–24. They consisted chiefly of machinery, allegorical or historical personages, songs and speeches.

“After all these shewes, thus ordered in their appointed places, followeth another device of huntsmen, all clad in greene, with their bowes, arrowes and bugles, and a new slaine deere, carried among them. It savoureth of earle Robert de la Hude, sometime the noble earle of Huntington, and sonne in law (by marriage) to old Fitz-Alwine,[52] raised by the muses all-commanding power, to honour this triumph with his father. During the time of his out-lawed life in the forest of merry Shirwood, and elsewhere, while the cruel oppression of a most unnatural and covetous brother hung heavy upon him, Gilbert de la Hude, lord abbot of Christall [r. Kirkstall] abbey, who had all or most of his lands in mortgage: he was commonly called Robin Hood, and had a gallant company of men (out-lawed in the like manner) that followed his downecast fortunes; as little John, Scathlocke, Much the miller’s son, Right-hitting Brand, fryar Tuck, and many more. In which condition of life we make instant use of him, and part of his brave bowmen, fitted with bowes and arrowes, of the like strength and length, as good records {lxvii} deliver testimonie, were then used by them in their killing of deere. . . . .

“Afterward, [viz. after “Fitz-Alwine’s speech to the lord maior at night,”] as occasion best presenteth itselfe, when the heate of all other employments are calmly overpast, earle Robin Hood, with fryer Tuck, and his other brave huntesmen, attending (now at last) to discharge their duty to my lord, which the busie turmoile of the whole day could not before affoord: they shewe themselves to him in this order, and earle Robin himselfe thus speaketh.

The speech spoken by Earl Robert de la Hude, commonly called Robin Hood.

Since graves may not their dead containe, Nor in their peacefull sleepes remaine, But triumphes and great showes must use them, And we unable to refuse them; It joyes me that earle Robert Hood, Fetcht from the forrest of merrie Shirwood, With these my yeomen tight and tall, Brave huntsmen and good archers all, Must in this joviall day partake, Prepared for your honour’s sake. No sooner was i raysde from rest, And of my former state possest As while i liv’d, but being alone, And of my yeomen seeing not one, I with my bugle gave a call, Made all the woods to ring withall. Immediately came little John, And Scathlock followed him anon, With Much the honest miller’s sonne; And ere ought else could be done, The frollicke frier came tripping in, His heart upon a merrie pinne. Master (quoth he) in yonder brake, A deere is hid for Marian’s sake, Bid Scathlock, John, or honest Brand, That hath the happy hitting hand, Shoote right and have him: and see, my lord, The deed performed with the word. For Robin and his bow-men bold, Religiously did ever holde, Not emptie-handed to be seene, Were’t but at feasting on a greene; {lxviii} Much more then, when so high a day Calls our attendance: all we may Is all too little, tis your grace To winke at weakenesse in this case: So, fearing to be over-long, End all with our old hunting song.

* * * * *

The song of Robin Hood and his huntes-men.

Now wend we together, my merry men all,
Unto the forrest side a;
And there to strike a buck or a doae,
Let our cunning all be tried a.

Then goe we merrily, merrily on,
To the green-wood to take up our stand [a],
Where we will lye in waite for our game,
With our best bowes all in our hand [a].

What life is there like to bold Robin Hood?
It is so pleasant a thing a:
In merry Shirwood he spends his dayes,
As pleasantly as a king a.

No man may compare with bold Robin Hood,
With Robin Hood, Scathlocke and John [a]:
Their like was never, nor never will be,
If in case that they were gone [a].

They will not away from merry Shirwood,
In any place else to dwell [a]:
For there is neither city nor towne,
That likes them half so well [a].

Our lives are wholly given to hunt,
And haunt the merry greene-wood [a];
Where our best service is daily spent,
For our master Robin Hood [a].”

6. “Robin Hood and his pastoral May games.” 1624.

7. “Robin Hood and his crew of soldiers.” 1627.

These two titles are inserted among the plays mentioned by Chetwood in his British Theatre (p. 67) as written by anonymous authors in the 16th century to the Restoration. But neither Langbaine, who mentions both, nor any other person, pretends to have ever seen either of them. The former, indeed, may possibly be “The playe of Robyn {lxix} Hode,” already noticed; and the other is probably a future article. Langbaine, it is to be observed, gives no date to either piece; so that it may be fairly concluded those above specified are of Chetwood’s own invention, which appears to have been abundantly fertile in every species of forgery and imposture.

8. “The sad shepherd, or a tale of Robin Hood.”

The story of our renowned archer cannot be said to have been wholly occupied by bards without a name, since, not to mention Mundy or Drayton, the celebrated Ben Jonson intended a pastoral drama on this subject, under the above title; but dying, in the year 1637, before it was finished, little more than the two first acts have descended down to us. His last editor (Mr. Whalley), while he regrets that it is but a fragment, speaks of it in raptures, and, indeed, not without evident reason, many passages being eminently poetical and judicious.

“The persons of the play,” so far as concerns our immediate purpose, are: [1] “Robin Hood, the chief woodman [i.e. forester], master of the feast. [2] Marian, his lady, the mistress. [3] Friar Tuck, the chaplain and steward. [4] Little John, bow-bearer. [5, 6] Scarlet, Scathlocke,[53] two brothers, huntsmen. [7] George a Green, huisher of the bower. [8] Much, Robin Hood’s bailiff or acater.” The rest are the guests invited, the witch of Paplewick, her daughter, the swin’ard her son, Puck Hairy or Robin Goodfellow, their hind, and lastly a devout hermit. “The scene, Sherwood, consisting of a landscape of a forest, hills, valleys, cottages, a castle, a river, pastures, herds, flocks, all full of country simplicity; Robin Hood’s bower, his well, &c.” “The argument of the first act” is as follows: “Robin Hood, having invited all the shepherds and shepherdesses of the vale of Be’voir to a feast in the forest of Sherwood, and trusting to his mistress, Maid Marian, with her woodmen, to kill him venison against the day; having left the like charge with Friar Tuck, his chaplain and steward, to command the rest of his merry men to see the bower made {lxx} ready, and all things in order for the entertainment: ‘meets’ with his guests at their entrance into the wood, and conducts them to his bower: where, by the way, he receives the relation of the sad shepherd Æglamour, who is fallen into a deep melancholy for the loss of his beloved Earine, reported to have been drowned in passing over the Trent, some few days before. . . . . In the meantime Marian is come from hunting. . . . . Robin Hood inquires if she hunted the deere at force, and what sport he made? how long he stood? and what head he bore? all which is briefly answered, with a relation of breaking him up, and the raven, and her bone. The suspect had of that raven to be Maudlin the witch of Paplewick, whom one of the huntsmen met i’ the morning at the rousing of the deer, and is confirmed by her being then in Robin Hood’s kitchen, i’ the chimney corner, broiling the same bit which was thrown to the raven at the quarry or fall of the deer. Marian, being gone in to shew the deer to some of the shepherdesses, returns discontented; sends away the venison she had killed to her they call the witch; quarrels with her love Robin Hood, abuseth him, and his guests the shepherds; and so departs, leaving them all in wonder and perplexity.”

By “the argument of the second act” it appears that the witch had “taken the shape of Marian to abuse Robin Hood and perplex his guests.” However, upon an explanation of the matter with the true Marian, the trick is found out, the venison recovered, and “Robin Hood dispatches out his woodmen to hunt and take her: which ends the act.” The third act was designed to be taken up with the chase of the witch, her various schemes to elude the pursuers, and the discovery of Earine in the swineherd’s enchanted oak. Nothing more of the author’s design appearing, we have only to regret the imperfect state of a pastoral drama, which, according to the above learned and ingenious editor, would have done honour to the nation.[54] {lxxi}

9. “Robin Hood and his crew of souldiers, a comedy acted at Nottingham on the day of his saCRed majesties corronation. Vivat rex. The actors names: Robin Hood, commander; Little John, William Scadlocke, souldiers; messenger from the sheriffe. London, printed for James Davis, 1661.” 4to.

This is an interlude, of a few pages and no merit, alluding to the late rebellion, and the subject of the day. The outlaws, convinced by the reasoning of the sheriff’s messenger, become loyal subjects.

10. “Robin Hood. An opera, as it is perform’d at Lee’s and Harper’s great theatrical booth in Bartholomew-fair.” 1730. 8vo.

11. “Robin Hood.” 1751. 8vo.

This was a ballad-farce, acted at Drury-lane Theatre, in which the following favourite song was originally sung by Mr. Beard, in the character of Robin Hood:

As blithe as the linnet sings in the green wood,
So blithe we’ll wake the morn;
And through the wide forest of merry Sherwood
We’ll wind the bugle horn.

The sheriff attempts to take bold Robin Hood,
Bold Robin disdains to fly;
Let him come when he will, we’ll, in merry Sherwood,
Or vanquish, boys, or die.

Our hearts they are stout, and our bows they are good,
As well their masters know;
They’re cull’d in the forest of merry Sherwood,
And never will spare a foe.

Our arrows shall drink of the fallow deer’s blood,
We’ll hunt them all o’er the plain!
And through the wide forest of merry Sherwood,
No shaft shall fly in vain.

Brave Scarlet, and John, who ne’er were subdu’d,
Give each his hand so bold;
We’ll range through the forest of merry Sherwood,
What say my hearts of gold?

12. “Robin Hood; or Sherwood forest: a comic opera. As performed at the theatre-royal in Covent-garden. By Leonard Mac Nally, esq.” 1784. 8vo. {lxxii}

This otherwise insignificant performance was embellished with some fine music by Mr. Shield. It has been since reduced to, and is still frequently acted as, an after-piece.

A drama on the subject of Robin Hood, under the title of The Foresters, has been long expected from the elegant author of The School for Scandal. The first act, said to have been written many years ago, is, by those who have seen or heard it, spoken of with admiration.[55]

(27) —“_innumerable poems, rimes, songs and ballads._”] The original and most ancient pieces of this nature have all perished in the lapse of time, during a period of between five and six hundred years’ continuance; and all we now know of them is that such things once existed. In the Vision of Pierce Plowman, an allegorical poem, thought to have been composed soon after the year 1360, and generally ascribed to Robert Langeland, the author introduces an ignorant, idle, and drunken secular priest, the representative, no doubt, of the parochial clergy of that age, in the character of Sloth, who makes the following confession:

“I cannot parfitli mi paternoster, as the preist it singeth,
But I can ryms of Roben Hode, and ‘Randolf’ erl of Chester,
But of our lorde or our lady I lerne nothyng at all.”[56]

{lxxiii}

Fordun, the Scotish historian, who wrote about 1340, speaking of Robin Hood and Little John, and their accomplices, says, “of whom the foolish vulgar in comedies and tragedies make lewd entertainment, and are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing them above all other ballads;”[57] and Mair (or Major), whose history was published by himself in 1521, observes that “The exploits of this Robert are celebrated in songs throughout all Britain.”[58] So, likewise, Maister Johne Bellendene, the translator of “that noble clerk Maister Hector Boece” (Bois or Boethius), having mentioned “that waithman Robert Hode with his fallow litil Johne,” adds, “of quhom ar mony fabillis and mery sportis soung amang the vulgar pepyll.”[59] Whatever may have been the nature of the compositions alluded to by the above writers, several of the pieces printed in the present collection are {lxxiv} unquestionably of great antiquity; not less, that is, than between three and four hundred years old. The Lytell Geste, which is first inserted, is probably the oldest thing upon the subject we now possess;[60] but a legend, apparently of the same species, was once extant, of, perhaps, a still earlier date, of which it is some little satisfaction to be able to give even the following fragment, from a single leaf, fortunately preserved in one of the volumes of old printed ballads in the British Museum, in a handwriting as old as Henry the Sixth’s time. It exhibits the characters of our hero and his _fidus Achates_ in the noblest point of view.

“He say_d_ Robyn Hod . . . . yne the preson, And owght off hit was g_on_.

The porter rose a-non certeyn,
As sone as he hard Johan call;
Lytyll Johan was redy with a sword,
And bare hym throw to the wall.

Now will I be jayler, sayd lytyll Johan,
And toke the keys in hond;
He toke the way to Robyn Hod,
And sone he hyme unbond.

He gaffe hym a good swerd in his hond,
His hed ther-with for to kepe;
And ther as the wallis wer lowest,
Anon down ther they lepe.

* * * * *

To Robyn . . . . . sayd:

I have d_one_ the a god torne for an . . .
Quit me when thow may;
I have done the a gode torne, sayd lytyll [Johan],
Forsothe as I the saye; {lxxv}
I have browghte the under the gren wod . . .
Farewell & have gode daye.

Nay, be my trowthe, sayd Robyn,
So schall it never bee;
I make the master, sayd Robyn,
Off all my men & me.
Nay, be my trowthe, sayd lytyll Johan,
So schall it never bee.”

This, indeed, may be part of the “story of Robin Hood and Little John,” which M. Wilhelm Bedwell found in the ancient MS. lent him by his much honoured good friend M. G. Withers, whence he extracted and published “The Turnament of Tottenham,” a poem of the same age, and which seemed to him to be done (perhaps but transcribed) by Sir Gilbert Pilkington, formerly, as some had thought, parson of that parish.[61]

That poems and stories on the subject of our hero and his companions were extraordinarily popular and common before and during the 16th century is evident from the testimony of divers writers. Thus, Alexander Barclay, priest, in his translation of The Shyp of Folys, printed by Pynson in 1508, and by John Cawood in 1570,[62] says:

“I write no jeste ne tale of Robin Hood.”

Again:

“For goodlie scripture is not worth an hawe,
But tales are loved ground of ribaudry;
And many are so blinded with their foly,
That no scriptur thinke they so true nor gode,
As is a foolish jest of Robin Hode.”

Again:

“And of all fables and jestes of Robin Hood,
Or other trifles.”

{lxxvi}

The same Barclay, in the fourth of his Egloges, subjoined to the last edition of The Ship of Foles, but originally printed soon after 1500, has the following passage:

“Yet would I gladly heare some mery fit
Of maide Marion, or els of Robin Hood,
Or Benteleyes ale, which chafeth well the blood,
Of Perte of Norwich, or Sauce of Wilberton,
Or buckishe Joly[63] well stuffed as a ton.”

Robert Braham, in his epistle to the reader, prefixed to Lydgate’s Troy-book, 1555, is of opinion that “Caxton’s recueil” [of Troy] is “worthye to be numbred amongest the trifelinge tales and barrayne luerdries of Robyn Hode and Bevys of Hampton.” (See Ames’s Typographical Antiquities, by Herbert, p. 849.)

“For one that is sand blynd,” says Sir Thomas Chaloner, “would take an asse for a moyle, or another prayse a rime of Robyn Hode for as excellent a making as Troylus of Chaucer, yet shoulde they not straight-waies be counted madde therefore?” (Erasmus’s Praise of Folye, sig. h.)

“If good lyfe,” observes Bishop Latimer, “do not insue and folowe upon our readinge to the example of other, we myghte as well spende that tyme in reading of prophane hystories, of Canterburye tales, or a fit of Roben Hode” (Sermons, sig. A. iiii.)

The following lines, from a poem in the Hyndford MS. compiled in 1568, afford an additional proof of our hero’s popularity in Scotland:

“Thair is no story that I of heir,
Of Johne nor Robene Hude,
Nor zit of Wallace wicht but weir,
That me thinkes half so gude,
As of thre palmaris,” &c.

That the subject was not forgotten in the succeeding age, can be testifyed by Drayton, who is elsewhere quoted, and in his sixth eclogue makes Gorbo thus address “old Winken de Word:” {lxxvii}

“Come, sit we down under this hawthorn-tree,
The morrow’s light shall lend us day enough,
And let us tell of Gawen, or Sir Guy,
Of Robin Hood, or of old Clem a Clough.”

Richard Johnson, who wrote “The History of Tom Thumbe,” in prose (London, 1621, 12mo, b. l.), thus prefaces his work: “My merry muse begets no tales of Guy of Warwicke, &c. nor will I trouble my penne with the pleasant glee of Robin Hood, little John, the fryer, and his Marian; nor will I call to mind the lusty Pinder of Wakefield, &c.”

In “The Calidonian Forrest,” a sort of allegorical or mystic tale, by John Hepwith, gentleman, printed in 1641, 4to, the author says,

“Let us talke of Robin Hoode,
And little John in mery Shirewoode,” &c.[64]

Of one very ancient, and undoubtedly once very popular, song this single line is all that is now known to exist: {lxxviii}

“Robin Hood in Barnsdale stood.”

However, though but a line, it is of the highest authority in Westminster Hall, where, in order to the decision of a knotty point, it has been repeatedly cited, in the most solemn manner, by grave and learned judges.

M. 6 Jac. B. R. Witham _v._ Barker, Yelv. 147. Trespass, for breaking plaintif’s close, &c. Plea. Liberum tenementum of Sir John Tyndall, and justification as his servant and by his command. Replication, That it is true it is his freehold, but that long before the time when &c. he leased to plaintif at will, who entered and was possessed until, &c. traversing, that defendant entered, &c. by command of Sir John. Demurrer: and adjudged against plaintif, on the ground of the replication being bad, as not setting forth any seisin or possession in Sir John, out of which a lease at will could be derived. For a title made by the plea or replication should be certain to all intents, because it is traversable. Here, therefor, he should have stated Sir John’s seisin, as well as the lease at will; which is not done here: “mes tout un come il ust replie Robin Whood in Barnwood stood, absque hoc q def. p commandement Sir John. Quod nota. Per Fenner, Williams et Crook justices sole en court. Et judgment done accordant. Yelv. p def.”

In the case of Bush _v._ Leake, B. R. Trin. 23 G. 3, Buller, justice, cited the case of Coulthurst _v._ Coulthurst, C. B. Pasch. 12 G. 3 (an action on bond), and observed, “There a case in Yelverton was alluded to, where the court said, you might as well say, by way of inducement to a traverse, Robin Hood in Barnwood stood.”

It is almost unnecessary to observe, because it will be shortly proved, that Barnwood, in the preceding quotations, ought to be Barnsdale.[65] With respect to Whood, the reader {lxxix} will see, under Note 19, a remarkable proof of the antiquity of that pronunciation, which actually prevails in the metropolis at this day. See also the word “whodes” in Note 34. So, likewise, Bale, in his _Actes of English Votaries_, 1560, says, “the monkes had their cowles, caprones or whodes;” and in Stow’s _Survey_, 1598, p. 120, have “a fooles whoode.”

This celebrated and important line occurs as the first of a foolish mock-song, inserted in an old mortality, intitled “A new interlude and a mery of the nature of the iiii elementes,” supposed to have been printed by John Rastall about 1520; where it is thus introduced:

“_Hu_[_manyte_]. ――let us some lusty balet syng.

_Yng_[_norance_]. Nay, syr, by the hevyn kyng:
For me thynkyth it servyth for no thyng,
All suche pevysh prykeryd song.

_Hu._ Pes, man, pryk-song may not be dyspysyd,
For therwith God is well plesyd.

* * * * *

_Yng._ Is God well pleasyd, trowest thou, therby?
Nay, nay, for there is no reason why.
For is it not as good to say playnly
Gyf me a spade,
As gyf me a spa ve va ve va ve vade?
But yf thou wylt have a song that is good,
I have one of Robyn Hode,
The best that ever was made. {lxxx}

_Hu._ Then a feleshyp, let us here it.

_Yng._ But there is a bordon, thou must here it,
Or ellys it wyll not be.

_Hu._ Than begyn, and care not for . . .
Downe downe downe, &c.

_Yng._ Robyn Hode in Barnysdale stode,
And lent hym tyl a mapyll thystyll;
Than cam our lady & swete saynt Andrewe;
Slepyst thou, wakyst thou, Geffrey Coke?[66]

A c. wynter the water was depe,
I can not tell you how brode;
He toke a gose nek in his hande,
And over the water he went.

He start up to a thystell top,
And cut hym downe a holyn clobbe;
He stroke the wren betwene the hornys,
That fyre sprange out of the pygges tayle.

Jak boy is thy bow i-broke,
Or hath any man done the wryguldy wrange?
He plukkyd muskyllys out of a wyllowe,
And put them in to his sachell.

Wylkyn was an archer good,
And well coude handell a spade;
He toke his bend bowe in his hand,
And set him downe by the fyre.

He toke with hym lx. bowes and ten,
A pese of befe, another of baken.
Of all the byrdes in mery Englond,
So merely pypys the mery bottel.”

“The lives, stories, and giftes of men which are contained in the bible, they [the papists] read as thinges no more pertaining unto them than a tale of Robin Hood” (Tyndale, Prologue to the prophecy of Jonas, about 1531).

Gwalter Lynne, printer, in his dedication to Ann, Duchess of Somerset, of “The true beliefe in Christ and his sacramentes,” 1550, says, “I woulde wyshe tharfore that al men, {lxxxi} women, and chyldren, would read it. Not as they haue bene here tofore accustomed to reade the fained storyes of Robin-hode, Clem of the Cloughe, wyth such lyke to passe the tyme wythal,” &c.

In 1562, John Alde had license to print “a ballad of Robyn god,” a mistake, it is probable, for Robyn Hod.

Alexander Hume, minister of Logie, about 1599, says in one of his “Hymnes or Sacred Songs,” printed in that year, that

――“much to blame are those of carnal brood, Who loath to taste of intellectual food, Yet surfeit on old tales of Robin Hood.”

Complaint of Scotland, Edin. 1801, Dissertation, p. 221.

“Exclude the scriptures, and bid them read the story
Of Robin Hood and Guy, which was both tall and stout,
And Bevis of Southampton, to seek the matter out.
Suffer all slander against God and his truth,
And praise the old fashion in king Arthur’s days,
Of abbays and monasteries how it is great ruth
To have them plucked down, and so the eldest says;
And how it was merry when Robin Hood’s plays
Was in every town, the morrice and the fool,
The maypole and the drum, to bring the calf from school,
With Midge, Madge and Marion, about the pole to dance,
And Stephen, that tall stripling, to lead Volans dance,
With roguing Gangweeke, a goodly remembrance,
With beads in every hand, our prayers stood by tale:
This was a merry work, talk among our meany,
And then of good eggs ye might have twenty for a penny.”

L. Ramsey’s Practice of the Divell, b. l.

All the entire poems and songs known to be extant will be found in the following collection; but many more may be traditionally preserved in different parts of the country which would have added considerably to its value.[67] That {lxxxii} some of these identical pieces, or others of the like nature, were great favourites with the common people in the time of Queen Elizabeth, though not much esteemed, it would seem, by the refined critic, may, in addition to the testimonies already cited, be inferred from a passage in Webbe’s Discourse {lxxxiii} of English Poetrie, printed in 1586. “If I lette passe,” says he, “the unaccountable rabble of ryming ballet-makers and compylers of sencelesse sonets, who be most busy to stuffe every stall full of grosse devises and unlearned pamphlets, I trust I shall with the best sort be held excused. For though many such can frame an alehouse-song of five or sixe score verses, hobbling uppon some tune of a northern jygge, or Robyn Hoode, or La lubber, &c. and perhappes observe just number of sillables, eyght in one line, sixe in an other, and therewithall an A to make a jercke in the ende, yet if these might be accounted poets (as it is sayde some of them make meanes to be promoted to the lawrell), surely we shall shortly have whole swarmes of poets; and every one that can frame a booke in ryme, though, for want of matter, it be but in commendations of copper noses, or bottle ale, wyll catch at the garlande due to poets: whose potticall (poeticall, I should say) heades, I woulde wyshe, at their worshipfull comencements, might, in steede of lawrell, be gorgiously garnished with fayre greene barley, in token of their good affection to our Englishe malt.” The chief object of this satire seems to be William Elderton, the drunken {lxxxiv} ballad-maker, of whose compositions all but one or two have unfortunately perished.[68]

Most of the songs inserted in the second half of this volume were common broad-sheet ballads, printed in black letter, with woodcuts, between the Restoration and the Revolution; though copies of some few have been found of an earlier date. “Who was the author of the collection intitled Robin Hood’s Garland, no one,” says Sir John Hawkins, “has yet pretended to guess. As some of the songs have in them more of the spirit of poetry than others, it is probable,” he thinks, “it is the work of various hands: that it has from time to time been varied and adapted to the phrase of the times,” he says, “is certain.” None of these songs, it is believed, were collected into a garland till after the Restoration; as the earliest that has been met with, a copy of which is in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq., was printed by W. Thackeray, a noted ballad-monger, in 1670. This, however, contains no more than sixteen songs, some of which, very falsely as it seems, are said to have been “never before printed.” “The latest edition of any worth,” according to Sir John Hawkins, “is that of 1719.” None of the old editions of this garland have any sort of preface: that prefixed to the modern ones, of Bow or Aldermary churchyard, being {lxxxv} taken from the collection of old ballads, 1723, where it is placed at the head of Robin Hood’s birth and breeding. The full title of the last London edition of any note is—“Robin Hood’s Garland: being a complete history of all the notable and merry exploits performed by him and his men on many occasions: To which is added a preface [_i.e._ the one already mentioned] giving a more full and particular account of his birth, &c., than any hitherto published. [Cut of archers shooting at a target.]

I’ll send this arrow from my bow, And in a wager will be bound To hit the mark aright, although It were for fifteen hundred pound. Doubt not I’ll make the wager good, Or ne’er believe bold Robin Hood.

Adorned with twenty-seven neat and curious cuts adapted to the subject of each song. London, Printed and sold by R. Marshall, in Aldermary church-yard, Bow-lane.” 12mo. On the back of the title-page is the following Grub-street address:

“To all gentlemen archers.

“This garland has been long out of repair,
Some songs being wanting, of which we give account;
For now at last, by true industrious care,
The sixteen songs to twenty-seven we mount;
Which large addition needs must please, I know,
All the ingenious ‘yeomen’ of the bow.
To read how Robin Hood and Little John,
Brave Scarlet, Stutely, valiant, bold and free,
Each of them bravely, fairly play’d the man,
While they did reign beneath the green-wood tree;
Bishops, friars, likewise many more,
Parted with their gold, for to increase their store,
But never would they rob or wrong the poor.”

The last seven lines are not by the author of the first six, but were added afterwards; perhaps when the twenty-four songs were increased to twenty-seven.[69] {lxxxvi}

(28) —“_has given rise to divers proverbs._”] Proverbs, in all countries, are, generally speaking, of very great antiquity; and therefore it will not be contended that those concerning our hero are the oldest we have. It is highly probable, however, that they originated in or near his own time, and of course have existed for upwards of 500 years, which is no modern date. They are here arranged, not, perhaps, according to their exact chronological order, but by the age of the authorities they are taken from.

1. “Good even, good Robin Hood.”

The allusion is to civility extorted by fear. It is preserved by Skelton, in that most biting satire against Cardinal Wolsey, “Why come ye not to court?” (Works, 1736, p. 147).

“He is set so hye,
In his hierarchy,

* * * * *

That in the chambre of stars
All matters there he mars;
Clapping his rod on the borde,
No man dare speake a word;
For he hath all the saying,
Without any renaying: {lxxxvii}
He rolleth in his recordes,
He saith, How say ye my lordes?
Is not my reason good?
Good even, good Robin Hood.”[70]

2. “Many men talk of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow.”

“That is, many discourse (or prate rather) of matters wherein they have no skill or experience. This proverb is now extended all over England, though originally of Nottinghamshire extraction, where Robin Hood did principally reside in Sherwood forest. He was an arch-robber, and withal an excellent archer; though surely the poet[71] gives a twang to the loose of his arrow, making him shoot one a cloth-yard long, at full forty score mark, for compass never higher than the breast, and within less than a foot of the mark. But herein our author hath verified the proverb, talking at large of Robin Hood, in whose bow he never shot” (Fuller’s Worthies, p. 315).

“One may justly wonder,” adds the facetious writer, “this archer did not at last hit the mark, I mean, come to the gallows for his many robberies.”

The proverb is mentioned, and given as above, by Sir Edward Coke in his 3d Institute, p. 197. See also Note 26. It is thus noticed by Jonson in “The king’s entertainment at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, 1633:”

“This is . . . . . father Fitz-Ale, herald of Derby, &c.
He can fly o’er hills and dales,
And report you more odd tales
Of our out law Robin Hood,
That revell’d here in Sherewood,
And more stories of him show,
(Though he ne’er shot in his bow)
Than au’ men or believe, or know.”

{lxxxviii}

We likewise meet with it in Epigrams, &c., 1654:

“In Vertutem.

“Vertue we praise, but practice not her good,
(Athenian-like) we act not what we know;
So many men doe talk of Robin Hood,
Who never yet shot arrow in his bow.”

On the back of a ballad in Anthony a Wood’s collection he has written,

“There be some that prate
Of Robin Hood, and of his bow,
Which never shot therein, I trow.”

Ray gives it thus:

“Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow,
And many talk of little John, that never did him know:”

which Kelly has varied, but without authority.

Camden’s printer has separated the lines, as distinct proverbs (Remains, 1674):

“Many speak of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow.

“Many a man talks of little John that never did him know.”

This proverb likewise occurs in The downfall of Robert earle of Huntington, 1600, and is alluded to in a scarce and curious old tract intitled “The contention betwyxte Church-yeard and Camell, upon David Dycer’s Dreame,” &c. 1560, 4to, b. l.

“Your sodain stormes and thundre claps, your boasts and braggs so loude:
Hath doone no harme thogh Robin Hood spake with you in a cloud.
Go learne againe of litell Jhon, to shute in Robyn Hods bowe,
Or Dicars dreame shall be unhit, and all his whens, I trowe.”[72]

The Italians appear to have a similar saying:

Molti parlan di Orlando Chi non viddero mai suo brando.

{lxxxix}

3. “To overshoot Robin Hood.”

“And lastly and chiefly, they cry out with open mouth as if they had overshot Robin Hood, that Plato banished them [_i.e._ poets] out of his commonwealth” (Sir P. Sidney’s Defence of Poesie).

4. “Tales of Robin Hood are good [enough] for fools.”

This proverb is inserted in Camden’s Remains, printed originally in 1605; but the word in brackets is supplied from Ray.

5. “To sell Robin Hood’s pennyworths.”

“It is spoken of things sold under half their value; or if you will, half sold, half given. Robin Hood came lightly by his ware, and lightly parted therewith; so that he could afford the length of his bow for a yard of velvet. Whithersoever he came, he carried a fair along with him; chapmen crowding to buy his stollen commodities. But seeing the receiver is as bad as the thief, and such buyers are as bad as receivers, the cheap pennyworths of plundered goods may in fine prove dear enough to their consciences” (Fuller’s Worthies, p. 315).

This saying is alluded to in the old North-country song of Randal a Barnaby:

“All men said, it became me well,
And Robin Hood’s pennyworths I did sell.”

6. “Come, turn about, Robin Hood.”

Implying that to challenge or defy our hero must have been the _ne plus ultra_ of courage. It occurs in “Wit and Drollery,” 1661:

“O love, whose power and might,
No creature ere withstood,
Thou forcest me to write,
Come turn about Robin-hood.”

7. “As crook’d as Robin Hood’s bow.”

That is, we are to conceive, when bent by himself. The following stanza of a modern Irish song is the only authority for this proverb that has been met with:

“The next with whom I did engage,
It was an old woman worn with age, {xc}
Her teeth were like tobacco pegs,
Besides she had two bandy legs,
Her back more crook’d than Robin Hood’s bow,
Purblind and decrepid, unable to go;
Altho’ her years were sixty-three,
She smil’d at the humours of Soosthe Bue.”

8. “To go round by Robin Hood’s barn.”

This saying, which now first appears in print, is used to imply the going of a short distance by a circuitous method, or the farthest way about.

(29) —“_to swear by him, or some of his companions, appears to have been a usual practice._”] The earliest instance of this practice occurs in a pleasant story among “Certaine merry tales of the mad-men of Gottam,” compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. by Dr. Andrew Borde, an eminent physician of that period, which here follows verbatim, as taken from an old edition in black letter, without date (in the Bodleian Library), being the first tale in the book.

“There was two men of Gottam, and the one of them was going to the market at Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market; and both met together upon Nottingham bridge. Well met, said the one to the other. Whither be yee going? said he that came from Nottingham. Marry, said he that was going thither, I goe to the market to buy sheepe. Buy sheepe! said the other, and which way wilt thou bring them home? Marry, said the other, I will bring them over this bridge. By Robin Hood, said he that came from Nottingham, but thou shalt not. By Maid Marrion, said he that was going thitherward, but I will. Thou shalt not, said the one. I will, said the other. Ter here! said the one. Shue there! said the other. Then they beate their staves against the ground, one against the other, as there had beene an hundred sheepe betwixt them. Hold in, said the one. Beware the leaping over the bridge of my sheepe, said the other. I care not, said the other. They shall not come this way, said the one. But they shall, said the other. Then said the other, & if that thou make much to doe, I will put my finger in thy mouth. A turd thou wilt, said the other. And as they were at that contention, another man of Gottam {xci} came from the market, with a sacke of meale upon a horse, and seeing and hearing his neighbours at strife for sheepe, and none betwixt them, said, Ah fooles, will you never learn wit? Helpe me, said he that had the meale, and lay my sack upon my shoulder. They did so; and he went to the one side of the bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sacke, and did shake out all his meale into the river. Now, neighbours, said the man, how much meale is there in my sacke now? Marry, there is none at all, said they. Now, by my faith, said he, even as much wit is in your two heads, to strive for that thing you have not. Which was the wisest of all these three persons, judge you.”[73]

“By the bare scalp of Robin Hood’s fat frier,” is an oath put by Shakespeare into the mouth of one of his outlaws in the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iv. scene 1. “Robin Hood’s fat frier” is Frier Tuck; a circumstance of which Doctor Johnson, who set about explaining that author with a very inadequate stock of information, was perfectly ignorant.

(30) —“_his songs have been preferred, not only on the most solemn occasion to the psalms of David, but in fact to the New Testament._”] [“On Friday, March 9th, 1733] was executed at Northampton William Alcock for the murder of his wife. He never own’d the fact, nor was at all concern’d at his approaching death, refusing the prayers and assistance of any persons. In the morning he drank more than was sufficient, yet sent and paid for a pint of wine, which being deny’d him, he would not enter the cart before he had his money return’d. On his way to the gallows he sung part of an old song of Robin Hood, with the chorus, Derry, derry, down,[74] &c., and swore, kick’d and spurn’d at every person {xcii} that laid hold of the cart; and before he was turn’d off, took off his shoes, to avoid a well-known proverb; and being told by a person in the cart with him, it was more proper for him to read, or hear some body read to him, than so vilely to swear and sing, he struck the book out of the person’s hands, and went on damning the spectators, and calling for wine. Whilst psalms and prayers were performing at the tree, he did little but talk to one or other, desiring some to remember him, others to drink to his good journey; and to the last moment declared the injustice of his case” (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. iii. P. 154).

To this maybe added, that at Edinburgh, in 1565, “Sandy Stevin menstrall [_i.e._ musician] was convinced of blasphemy, alledging, That he would give no moir credit to The new testament, then to a tale of Robin Hood, except it wer confirmed be the doctours of the church” (Knox’s Historie of the Reformation in Scotland, Edin. 1732, p. 368).

William Roy, in a bitter satire against Cardinal Wolsey, intitled, “Rede me and be nott wrothe For I saye nothynge but trothe,” printed abroad, about 1525, speaking of the bishops, says:

“Their frantyke foly is so pevisshe,
That they contempne in Englisshe,
To have the new testament;
But as for tales of Robyn Hode,
With wother jestes nether honest nor goode,
They have none impediment.”

To the same effect is the following passage in another old libel upon the priests, intitled “I playne Piers which can not flatter, a plowe-man men me call,” &c. b. l. n. d. printed in the original as prose:

“No Christen booke,
Maye thou on looke,
Yf thou be an Englishe strunt, {xciii}
Thus dothe alyens us loutte,
By that ye spreade aboute,
After that old sorte and wonte.
You allowe they saye,
Legenda aurea,
Roben Hoode, Bevys, & Gower,
And all bagage be syd,
But God’s word ye may not abyde,
These lyese are your churche ‘dower.’”

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Robin HoodChapter IV: Preface (3)

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