Robin, brother-in-law of Farmer Crop, of Cornwall. Having lost his property through the villainy of Lawyer Endless, he emigrates, and in three years returns. The ship is wrecked off the coast of Cornwall and Robin saves Frederick, the young squire. On landing, he meets his old sweetheart, Margaretta, at Crop’s house, and the acquaintance is renewed by mutual consent.—P. Hoare, No Song no Supper (1790).
Robin, a young gardener, fond of the minor theatres, where he has picked up a taste for sentimental fustian, but all his rhapsodies bear upon his trade. Thus, when Wilhelmina asks why he wishes to dance with her, he replies:
Ask the plants why they love a shower; ask the sunflower why it loves the sun; ask the snowdrop why it is white; ask the violet why it is blue; ask the trees why they blossom; the cabbages why they grow. ’Tis all because they can’t help it; no more can I help my love for you.—C. Didbin, The Waterman, i. (1774).
Robin (Old), butler to old Mr. Ralph Morton, of Milnwood.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
Robin Bluestring. Sir Robert Walpole was so called, in allusion to his blue ribbon as a knight of the garter (1676-1745).
Robin des Bois. Mysterious rover of the woods in Freischütz, also in Eugène Sue’s novels—“a bug-a-boo!”
Robin Gray (Auld). The words of this song are by Lady Anne Lindsay, daughter of the earl of Balcarres; she was afterwards Lady Barnard. The song was written, in 1772, to an old Scotch tune called The Bridegroom Grat when the Sun gaed Down. (See Gray.)
Robin Hood was born at Locksley, in Notts., in the reign of Henry II. (1160). His real name was Fitzooth, and it is commonly said that he was the earl of Huntingdon. Having outrun his fortune, and being outlawed, he lived as a freebooter in Barnsdale (Yorkshire), Sherwood (Notts.), and Plompton Park (Cumberland). His chief companions were Little John (whose name was Nailor), William Scadlock (or Scarlet), George Green, the pinder (or pound-keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller’s son, and Tuck, a friar, with one woman, Maid Marian. His company at one time consisted of a hundred archers. He was bled to death in his old age by his sister, the Prioress of Kirkley’s Nunnery, in Yorkshire, November 18, 1247, aged 87 years.
*** An excellent sketch of Robin Hood is given by Drayton in his Polyolbion, xxvi. Sir W. Scott introduces him in two novels—Ivanhoe and The Talisman. In the former he first appears as Locksley, the archer, at the tournament. He is also called “Dickon Bend-the-Bow.”
The following dramatic pieces have the famous outlaw for the hero: Robin Hood, i. (1597), Munday; Robin Hood, ii. (1598), Chettle; Robin Hood (1741), an opera, by Dr. Arne and Burney; Robin Hood (1787), an opera by O’Keefe, music by Shield; Robin Hood, by Macnally (before 1820).