B
a. Garland of 1663, No 11. b. Pepys, I, 78, No 37. c. Garland of 1670, No 10. d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b. e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86. f. Douce, II, 184.
1
In summer time, when leaves grow green,
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men
Were disposed to play.
2
Then some would leap, and some would run,
And some would use artillery:
‘Which of you can a good bow draw,
A good archer to be?
3
‘Which of you can kill a buck?
Or who can kill a do?
Or who can kill a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro?’
4
Will Scadlock he killd a buck,
And Midge he killd a do,
And Little John killd a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro.
5
‘God’s blessing on thy heart,’ said Robin Hood,
‘That hath [shot] such a shot for me;
I would ride my horse an hundred miles,
To finde one could match with thee.’
6
That causd Will Scadlock to laugh,
He laughed full heartily:
‘There lives a curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Will beat both him and thee.
7
‘That curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Well can a strong bow draw;
He will beat you and your yeomen,
Set them all on a row.’
8
Robin Hood took a solemn oath,
It was by Mary free,
That he would neither eat nor drink
Till the frier he did see.
9
Robin Hood put on his harness good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
10
He took his bow into his hand,
It was made of a trusty tree,
With a sheaf of arrows at his belt,
To the Fountains Dale went he.
11
And comming unto Fountain Dale,
No further would he ride;
There was he aware of a curtal frier,
Walking by the water-side.
12
The fryer had on a harniss good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
13
Robin Hood lighted off his horse,
And tied him to a thorn:
‘Carry me over the water, thou curtal frier,
Or else thy life’s forlorn.’
14
The frier took Robin Hood on his back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
15
Lightly leapt Robin Hood off the friers back;
The frier said to him again,
Carry me over this water, fine fellow,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
16
Robin Hood took the frier on ’s back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
17
Lightly leapt the fryer off Robin Hoods back;
Robin Hood said to him again,
Carry me over this water, thou curtal frier,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
18
The frier took Robin Hood on’s back again,
And stept up to the knee;
Till he came at the middle stream,
Neither good nor bad spake he.
19
And coming to the middle stream,
There he threw Robin in:
‘And chuse thee, chuse thee, fine fellow,
Whether thou wilt sink or swim.’
20
Robin Hood swam to a bush of broom,
The frier to a wicker wand;
Bold Robin Hood is gone to shore,
And took his bow in hand.
21
One of his best arrows under his belt
To the frier he let flye;
The curtal frier, with his steel buckler,
He put that arrow by.
22
‘Shoot on, shoot on, thou fine fellow,
Shoot on as thou hast begun;
If thou shoot here a summers day,
Thy mark I will not shun.’
23
Robin Hood shot passing well,
Till his arrows all were gone;
They took their swords and steel bucklers,
And fought with might and maine;
24
From ten oth’ clock that day,
Till four ith’ afternoon;
Then Robin Hood came to his knees,
Of the frier to beg a boon.
25
‘A boon, a boon, thou curtal frier,
I beg it on my knee;
Give me leave to set my horn to my mouth,
And to blow blasts three.’
26
‘That will I do,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Of thy blasts I have no doubt;
I hope thou’lt blow so passing well
Till both thy eyes fall out.’
27
Robin Hood set his horn to his mouth,
He blew but blasts three;
Half a hundred yeomen, with bows bent,
Came raking over the lee.
28
‘Whose men are these,’ said the frier,
‘That come so hastily?’
‘These men are mine,’ said Robin Hood;
‘Frier, what is that to thee?’
29
‘A boon, a boon,’ said the curtal frier,
‘The like I gave to thee;
Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth,
And to whute whutes three.’
30
‘That will I do,’ said Robin Hood,
‘Or else I were to blame;
Three whutes in a friers fist
Would make me glad and fain.’
31
The frier he set his fist to his mouth,
And whuted whutes three;
Half a hundred good ban-dogs
Came running the frier unto.
32
‘Here’s for every man of thine a dog,
And I my self for thee:’
‘Nay, by my faith,’ quoth Robin Hood,
‘Frier, that may not be.’
33
Two dogs at once to Robin Hood did go,
The one behind, the other before;
Robin Hoods mantle of Lincoln green
Off from his back they tore.
34
And whether his men shot east or west,
Or they shot north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were,
They kept their arrows in their mouth.
35
‘Take up thy dogs,’ said Little John,
‘Frier, at my bidding be;’
‘Whose man art thou,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Comes here to prate with me?’
36
‘I am Little John, Robin Hoods man,
Frier, I will not lie;
If thou take not up thy dogs soon,
I’le take up them and thee.’
37
Little John had a bow in his hand,
He shot with might and main;
Soon half a score of the friers dogs
Lay dead upon the plain.
38
‘Hold thy hand, good fellow,’ said the curtal frier,
‘Thy master and I will agree;
And we will have new orders taken,
With all the haste that may be.’
39
‘If thou wilt forsake fair Fountains Dale,
And Fountains Abby free,
Every Sunday throughout the year,
A noble shall be thy fee.
40
‘And every holy day throughout the year,
Changed shall thy garment be,
If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham,
And there remain with me.’
41
This curtal frier had kept Fountains Dale
Seven long years or more;
There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.
A.
Half a page is gone after 22, 113, 213.
11. moones?
12. 13 in May.
14. month may pass, though moone is expected.
21,2. might perhaps be intelligible with the other half of the stanza.
104, 203. They.
111. eze.
134. counent? comment? F.
151. Now fate.
163. 100d
:.
173,4. bis {
181. Ever.
183. 3.
B. a.
The famous battel between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer, near Fountain Dale.
To a new northern tune.
41, 61. Sadlock: Scadlock elsewhere.
151. stept. Cf. 171: leapt in b, e.
194. sing.
243. his wanting, and in all but b, e.
244. the wanting, and in all but b, e.
274. ranking: in d, e, f, ranging.
321. of thine wanting: found only in b.
344. catcht: kept in b, d.
353. thon.
b.
Title as in a, omitting near Fountain Dale.
Printed at London for H. Gosson. (1607–41.)
24. for to.
34, 44, 53, 273, 313. hundreth.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
73. and all.
74. all a on a.
81. Hood he.
92, 122. And wanting.
104. Fountaine.
111. into.
112. he would.
113. he was: of the.
121. a wanting.
144, 164. th’ other.
151. leapt for stept.
161. on his.
181. Hood wanting.
182. in for up.
202. wigger.
204. in his.
221. Scot: a misprint.
232. gane.
234. They for And.
241. of clock of that.
242. four of th’.
243. to his.
244. of the.
254. But to.
261. I will.
274. raking.
282. comes.
294, 303, 312. whues, unobjectionable: in all the rest whutes.
311. he set.
313. of good band-dogs.
321. man of thine.
328. said for quoth.
344. kept the.
384. that wanting.
401. through the.
412. and more.
c.
Title as in a, except Dales.
52. hath wanting.
63, 71. Fountain.
84. he the frier did.
151. stept.
201. swom.
231. shot so.
283. men wanting.
313. band-dogs.
344. catcht.
354. to me.
402. garments.
d.
Title as in b.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson. (1640–80?)
53. a.
54. with wanting.
74. all in.
111. Fountains.
112. farther.
151. stept.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
231. shot so.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
311. he wanting.
321. of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. They kept.
393. through the.
402. garments.
e.
Title as in b.
Printed for W. Thackeray, J. Millet, and A. Milbourn. (1680–97?)
24. for wanting.
34, 44. hundreth.
52. That shot such a shoot.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
63. Fountain.
7, 8. wanting.
102. made wanting.
111. Fountain’s.
112. farther.
113. he was.
121. on wanting.
151. leapt for stept.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
163. speak.
173. over the.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. were all gane.
234. They for And.
243. to his.
244. Of the.
261. I will.
272. blew out.
274. ranging.
313. bay dogs.
321. Here is.
343. The cutrtles.
344. caught the.
381. Hold thy hand, hold thy hand, said.
391,2, 411. Fountain.
401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and for or.
f.
Title as in b.
London, printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. (1655–80.)
22. some wanting.
52. shot such a shoot.
53. a.
54. with wanting.
111. Fountains.
112. farther.
113. ware.
151. step’d.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
213, 343. curtle.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. Till all his arrows were.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
303. fryer.
311. he wanting.
313. bay-dogs.
321. Here is: of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. caught the.
392, 411. Fountain.
393, 401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and more.
APPENDIX
THE PLAY OF ROBIN HOOD
(1–110)
a.
Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 192, as printed by William Copland, at the end of his edition of the Gest.
b.
As printed by Edward White, at the end of his edition of the Gest: Bodleian Library, Z. 3. Art. Seld.
ROBYN HODE
Now stand ye forth, my mery men all,
And harke what I shall say;
Of an adventure I shal you tell,
The which befell this other day.
As I went by the hygh way,
5
With a stout frere I met,
And a quarter-staffe in his hande.
Lyghtely to me he lept,
And styll he bade me stande.
There were strypes two or three,
10
But I cannot tell who had the worse,
But well I wote the horeson lept within me,
And fro me he toke my purse.
Is there any of my mery men all
That to that frere wyll go,
15
And bryng hym to me forth withall,
Whether he wyll or no?
LYTELL JOHN
Yes, mayster, I make God avowe,
To that frere wyll I go,
And bring him to you,
20
Whether he wyl or no.
FRYER TUCKE
Deus hic! deus hic! God be here!
Is not this a holy worde for a frere?
God save all this company!
But am not I a jolly fryer?
25
For I can shote both farre and nere,
And handle the sworde and buckler,
And this quarter-staffe also.
If I mete with a gentylman or yeman,
I am not afrayde to loke hym upon,
30
Nor boldly with him to carpe;
If he speake any wordes to me,
He shall have strypes two or thre,
That shal make his body smarte.
But, maisters, to shew you the matter
35
Wherfore and why I am come hither,
In fayth I wyll not spare.
I am come to seke a good yeman,
In Bernisdale men sai is his habitacion,
His name is Robyn Hode.
40
And if that he be better man than I,
His servaunt wyll I be, and serve him truely;
But if that I be better man than he,
By my truth my knave shall he be,
And leade these dogges all three.
45
ROBYN HODE
Yelde the, fryer, in thy long cote.
FRYER TUCKE
I beshrew thy hart, knave, thou hurtest my throt[e].
ROBYN HODE
I trowe, fryer, thou beginnest to dote;
Who made the so malapert and so bolde
To come into this forest here,
50
Amonge my falowe dere?
FRYER
Go louse the, ragged knave.
If thou make mani wordes, I will geve the on the eare,
Though I be but a poore fryer.
To seke Robyn Hode I am com here,
55
And to him my hart to breke.
ROBYN HODE
Thou lousy frer, what wouldest thou with hym?
He never loved fryer, nor none of freiers kyn.
FRYER
Avaunt, ye ragged knave!
Or ye shall have on the skynne.
60
ROBYN HODE
Of all the men in the morning thou art the worst,
To mete with the I have no lust;
For he that meteth a frere or a fox in the morning,
To spede ill that day he standeth in jeoperdy.
Therfore I had lever mete with the devil of hell,
65
(Fryer, I tell the as I thinke,)
Then mete with a fryer or a fox
In a mornyng, or I drynk.
FRYER
Avaunt, thou ragged knave! this is but a mock;
If thou make mani words thou shal have a knock.
70
ROBYN HODE
Harke, frere, what I say here:
Over this water thou shalt me bere,
The brydge is borne away.
FRYER
To say naye I wyll not;
To let the of thine oth it were great pitie and sin;
75
But up on a fryers backe, and have even in!
ROBYN HODE
Nay, have over.
FRYER
Now am I, frere, within, and thou, Robin, without,
To lay the here I have no great doubt.
Now art thou, Robyn, without, and I, frere, within,
80
Lye ther, knave; chose whether thou wilte sinke or swym.
ROBYN HODE
Why, thou lowsy frere, what hast thou done?
FRYER
Mary, set a knave over the shone.
ROBYN HODE
Therfore thou shalt abye.
FRYER
Why, wylt thou fyght a plucke?
85
ROBYN HODE
And God send me good lucke.
FRYER
Than have a stroke for fryer Tucke.
ROBYN HODE
Holde thy hande, frere, and here me speke.
FRYER
Say on, ragged knave,
Me semeth ye begyn to swete.
90
ROBYN HODE
In this forest I have a hounde,
I wyl not give him for an hundreth pound.
Geve me leve my horne to blowe,
That my hounde may knowe.
FRYER
Blowe on, ragged knave, without any doubte,
95
Untyll bothe thyne eyes starte out.
Here be a sorte of ragged knaves come in,
Clothed all in Kendale grene,
And to the they take their way nowe.
ROBYN HODE
Peradventure they do so.
100
FRYER
I gave the leve to blowe at thy wyll,
Now give me leve to whistell my fyll.
ROBYN HODE
Whystell, frere, evyl mote thou fare!
Untyll bothe thyne eyes stare.
FRYER
Now Cut and Bause!
105
Breng forth the clubbes and staves,
And downe with those ragged knaves!
ROBYN HODE
How sayest thou, frere, wylt thou be my man,
To do me the best servyse thou can?
Thou shalt have both golde and fee.
110
After ten lines of ribaldry, which have no pertinency to the traditional Robin Hood and Friar, the play abruptly passes to the adventure of Robin Hood and the Potter.
a.
Ritson has been followed, without collation with Copland.
35. maister.
64. spede ell.
70. you, you for thou, thou.
82. donee.
104. starte.
b.
13. he wanting.
15. to the.
23. word of.
31. Not.
35. maister.
41. if he.
43. be a.
59. ye wanting.
61. in a.
65. had rather: of hell wanting.
70. yu: yu shalt.
81. choose either sinke.
97. Here is.
103. might thou.
104. stare.
124
THE JOLLY PINDER OF WAKEFIELD
A. a. Wood, 402, leaf 43. b. Garland of 1663, No 4. c. Garland of 1670, No 3. d. Pepys, II, 100, No 87 a. e. Wood, 401, leaf 61 b.
B. Percy MS., p. 15; Hales and Furnivall, I, 32.
Printed in Ritson’s Robin Hood, 1795, II, 16, from one of Wood’s copies, “compared with two other copies in the British Museum, one in black letter:” Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 99.
There is another copy in the Roxburghe collection, III, 24, and there are two in the Bagford.
‘A ballett of Wakefylde and a grene’ is entered to Master John Wallye and Mistress Toye, 19 July, 1557–9 July, 1558: Stationers’ Registers, Arber, I, 76.
The ballad is one of four, besides the Gest, that were known to the author of the Life of Robin Hood in Sloane MS., 715, which dates from the end of the seventeenth century. It is thoroughly lyrical, and therein “like the old age,” and was pretty well sung to pieces before it ever was printed. A snatch of it is sung, as Ritson has observed, in each of the Robin Hood plays, The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington, by Anthony Munday, and The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington, by A. Munday and Henry Chettle, both printed in 1601.
At Michaelmas cometh my covenant out,
My master gives me my fee;
Then, Robin, I’ll wear thy Kendall green,
And wend to the greenwood with thee.
O there dwelleth a jolly pinder
At Wakefield all on a green.[[104]]
Silence sings the line ‘And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John,’ 32, in the Second Part of King Henry Fourth, V, 3, and Falstaff addresses Bardolph as Scarlet and John in the first scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster, V, 4, Dyce, I, 295, we have: “Let not ... your Robinhoods, Scarlets, and Johns tie your affections in darkness to your shops.” Scarlet and John, comrades of Robin Hood from the beginning, are prominent in many ballads.
Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John have left the highway and made a path over the corn,[[105]] apparently in defiance of the Pinder of Wakefield, who has the fame of being able to exact a penalty of trespassers, whatever their rank. The Pinder bids them turn again; they, being three to one, scorn to comply. The Pinder fights with them till their swords are broken. Robin cries Hold! and asks the Pinder to join his company in the greenwood. This the Pinder is ready to do at Michaelmas, when his engagement to his present master will be terminated. Robin asks for meat and drink, and the Pinder offers him bread, beef, and ale.
The adventure of the ballad is naturally introduced into the play of George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, printed in 1599, reprinted in Dodsley’s Old Plays (the third volume of the edition of 1825), and by Dyce among the works of Robert Greene. George a Greene fights with Scarlet, and beats him; then with Much (not John), and beats him; then with Robin Hood. Robin protests he is the stoutest champion that ever he laid hands on, and says:
George, wilt thou forsake Wakefield
And go with me?
Two liveries will I give thee every year,
And forty crowns shall be thy fee.
George welcomes Robin to his house, offering him wafer-cakes, beef, mutton, and veal. (Dyce, II, 196 f.)
The scene in the play is found in the prose history of George a Green, London, 1706, of which a copy is known, no doubt substantially the same, of the date 1632. The Pinner here fells ‘Slathbatch,’ Little John, and the Friar, before his bout with Robin. See Thoms, A Collection of Early Prose Romances, II, 44–47, and the prefaces, p. viii ff, p. xviii f, for more about the popularity of the Pinner’s story.
Wakefield is in the West Riding of the county of York.
Richard Brathwayte, in a poetical epistle “to all true-bred northerne sparks of the generous society of the Cottoneers,” Strappado for the Divell, 1615 (cited by Ritson, Robin Hood, ed. 1795, I, xxvii-ix), speaks of
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:
from which we might infer that according to one account the Pinder had impounded Robin’s horse. But as Robin Hood, in this passage, is confounded with the rebel Earl of Kendal, or some one of his adherents, it is safe to suppose that Brathwayte has been twice inaccurate.[[106]]
The ballad is so imperfect that one might be in doubt whether the Pinder fights with Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John all together or successively. But to suppose the Pinder capable of dealing with all three at once would be monstrous, and we see from the History and from Greene’s play that the Pinder must take them one after the other, and Robin the last of the three.
There are seven other ballads, besides The Pinder of Wakefield, in which Robin Hood, after trying his strength with a stout fellow, and coming off somewhat or very much the worse, induces his antagonist to enlist in his company. Several of these are very late, and most of them imitations, we may say, of the Pinder, or one of the other. These ballads are: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar; Robin Hood and Little John; Robin Hood and the Tanner; Robin Hood and the Tinker, 28 ff; Robin Hood Revived; Robin Hood and the Ranger; Robin Hood and the Scotchman. We might add Robin Hood and Maid Marian. The episode of Little John and the Cook, in the Gest, 165–171, is after the same pattern. There is another set in which a contest of a like description does not result in an accession to the outlaw-band. These are Robin Hood and the Potter; Robin Hood and the Butcher; Robin Hood and the Beggar, I; Robin Hood and the Beggar, II (Robin Hood first beaten, then three of his men severely handled); Robin Hood and the Shepherd (Robin Hood overmastered, Little John on the point of being beaten, etc.); The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (John outmatched first, then his master); Robin Hood’s Delight (combat between Robin Hood, Little John, and Scadlock and three Keepers); Robin Hood and the Pedlars (again three to three).
There are, as might be expected, frequent verbal agreements in these ballads, and many of them are collected by Fricke, Die Robin-Hood-Balladen, pp 91–95.
The fights in these ballads last from an hour, Gest, st. 168, to a long summer’s day, in this ballad, st. 6. In Robin Hood and Maid Marian, st. 11, the time is at least an hour, or more; in Robin Hood and the Tanner, st. 20, two hours and more; in Robin Hood and the Ranger, st. 12, three hours; in Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar, B 24, and Robin Hood and the Shepherd, st. 11, from ten o’clock till four; in Robin Hood’s Delight, st. 11, from eight o’clock till two, and past.