[27], i.e. I shall easily bare my head, in reverence to the sheriff, &c.
[33]. Nine or ten stanzas wanting. J.
[49]. For "the sergeant" read "his rowte." J.
[63], by me.
ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOWS THREE SONS FROM THE SHERIFF, WHEN GOING TO BE EXECUTED.
Ritson's Robin Hood, ii. 155.
"This ballad," says Ritson, "from the York edition of Robin Hood's Garland,[29] is probably one of the oldest extant of which he is the subject. The circumstance of Robin's changing clothes with the palmer, is, possibly, taken from an old romance, entitled The noble hystory of the moost excellent and myghty prynce and hygh renowmed knyght kynge Ponthus of Galyce and of lytell Brytayne. Emprynted at London in Fletestrete, at the sygne of the sonne, by Wynken de Worde. In the yere of our lorde god 1511, 4to. bl. sig, L 6. 'And as he (Ponthus) rode, he met with a poore palmer, beggynge his brede, the whiche had his gowne all to-clouted and an olde pylled hatte: so he alyght, and sayd to the palmer, frende, we shall make a chaunge of all our garmentes, for ye shall have my gowne and I shall have yours and your hatte. A, syr, sayd the palmer, ye bourde you with me. In good fayth, sayd Ponthus, I do not; so he dyspoyled hym and cladde hym with all his rayment, and he put upon hym the poore mannes gowne, his gyrdell, his hosyn, his shone, his hatte and his bourden.'"
"There is an allusion to this ballad," adds Gutch, "in Anthony Munday's play of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington. Collier's Old Plays, p. 41."