Harington's Ariosto, p. 391, as cited by Ritson.
[2] Sloth says:—
"I kan noght parfitly my pater-noster,
As the preest it syngeth,
But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood,
And Randolf erl of Chestre."
Wright's ed. v. 3275-8.
[3] A writer in the Edinburgh Review, (July, 1847, p. 134,) has cited an allusion to Robin Hood, of a date intermediate between the passages from Wyntown, and the one about to be cited from Bower. In the year 1439, a petition was presented to Parliament against one Piers Venables of Aston, in Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be Robyn Hode and his meynè." Rot. Parl. v. 16.
[4] "Legendis non raro incredibilibus aliisque plusquam anilibus neniis." Hearne, Scotichronicon, p. xxix.
[5] Hearne. Mr. Hunter agrees to this.
[6] Hearne, p. 774.
[7] Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, ii. 104.
[8] A comparison of the legends concerning William Tell, as they appear in any of the recent discussions of the subject, (e.g. Ideler's Sage von dem Schuss des Tell, Berlin, 1836,) with those of Robin Hood and Adam Bell, will be found interesting and instructive.