[62]. We must not forget a once familiar corruption of the diminutive ‘Juliet’ into ‘Juet.’ Such entries as ‘Juetta fil. William’ (T.), ‘Richard fil. Juetta’ (T.), ‘William Juet’ (A.), or ‘Christopher Jewitson’ (Z.) are very common in the rolls of the xiiith and xivth centuries. This, in the North, was pronounced ‘Jowet,’ hence such entries as ‘Roger fil. Jowettæ’ (T.), ‘Jowet Barton’ (W. 11), and our surname ‘Jowett.’ ‘Jewitt’ also exists. One of this name was a jockey in the Derby of 1874.
[63]. So, also, in another place the same translator says: ‘The kyngdom of hevenes is lyk to a marchaunt that seekith gode margarites, but whanne he hath founde one precious margarite, he wente and solde alle thingis that he hadde and boughte it.’—Matt. xiii. 45, 46. Foxe too, in his ‘Book of Martyrs,’ quotes Isidorus to the effect that John the Apostle ‘turned certain pieces of wood into gold, and stones by the seaside into margarites.’—Vol. i. p. 28, edit. 1844.
[64]. ‘Barbara,’ as another Greek virgin-martyr, may be set beside Margaret. ‘Barbe’ was the French form. As we shall see by-and-by, our ‘Simbarbes’ and ‘Simbarbs’ hail from St. Barbe in Normandy. (Jordan de St. Barbe, M., Thomas Seyntbarbe, B.) The Hundred Rolls register three pet forms as surnames. ‘Bertol Babbe,’ ‘John Barbot,’ and ‘Nicholas Barbelot.’ The latter belongs to the class in elot of which ‘Robelot,’ ‘Hewelot’ and ‘Hamelot’ are instances.
[65]. The various forms of the diminutive are found as Christian names in the ‘Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne’ (Ch. Soc.), where occur such entries as ‘Magot, that was wife of Richard,’ ‘Merget of Staley,’ ‘Marget of Stanly,’ ‘Mergret, that was wife of Hobbe.’—pp. 96–7.
[66]. Since writing the above, I find several notices in Brand’s ‘Popular Antiquities’ which, while corroborating the view I have taken, shed a clearer light as to Maid Marian’s other sobriquet of ‘Malkin.’ In his allusion to the Morris dances, he quotes Beaumont and Fletcher as saying—
‘Put on the shape of order and humanity,
Or you must marry Malkin, the May-lady.’
Thus far, then, adding this to Mr. Halliwell’s quotation, we find that Maid Marian for several centuries was also ‘Malkin.’ But we must remember that it was during this very period that Robin Hood and his mistress were popularly believed to be Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, and Matilda, daughter of Lord Fitzwalter. That the May Queen, therefore, should be occasionally styled ‘Malkin’ will appear natural enough if we accept the view of the origin of that name as recorded in the text. But it may be asked how did she get the sobriquet of ‘Marian’? Perhaps Mr. Steevens’s quotation from an old play, ‘The Downfall of Rob. Earl of Huntingdon,’ dated 1401, may help us—
‘Next ’tis agreed (if thereto she agree)
That fair Matilda henceforth change her name;