To here the foulé’s song;
To see the dere draw to the dale,
And leve the hillés hee,
And shadow them in the levés green,
Under the grenwode tree.”
But was Robin Hood a myth? Was he a real yeoman—was he the Earl of Huntington? We cannot tell; we know no one who can. We know only that this hero of the folk-songs made the common people’s ideal of a good fellow—brave, lusty—a capital bowman, a wondrous wrestler, a lover of good cheer, a hater of pompous churchmen, a spoiler of the rich, a helper of the poor, with such advices as these for Little John:—
“Loke ye do no housbande harme
That tylleth with his plough;
No more ye shall no good yeman
That walketh by grenewode shawe,