III. Friar Tuck. There is no very ancient mention of this person, whose history is very uncertain. Drayton has thus recorded him, among other companions of Robin Hood:
"Of Tuck the merry friar which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws and their trade."[177]
He is known to have formed one of the characters in the May games during the reign of Henry the Eighth, and had been probably introduced into them at a much earlier period. From the occurrence of this name on other occasions, there is good reason for supposing that it was a sort of generic appellation for any friar, and that it originated from the dress of the order, which was tucked or folded at the waist by means of a cord or girdle. Thus Chaucer, in his prologue to the Canterbury tales, says of the Reve;
"Tucked he was, as is a frere aboute:"
And he describes one of the friars in the Sompnour's tale:
"With scrippe and tipped staff, ytucked hie."
This friar maintained his situation in the morris under the reign of Elizabeth, being thus mentioned in Warner's Albion's England:
"Tho Robin Hood, liell John, frier Tucke and Marian deftly play:"
but is not heard of afterwards. In Ben Jonson's Masque of gipsies, the clown takes notice of his omission in the dance.[178]