Robin Hood / A collection of all the ancient poems, songs, and ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English outlaw. To which are prefixed historical anecdotes of his life.

by Unknown

II. ROBYN HODE [AND THE POTTER].

This curious, and hitherto unpublished, and even unheard of, old piece is given from a manuscript among Bishop More’s collections, in the public library of the University of Cambridge (Ee. 4. 35). The writing, which is evidently that of a vulgar and illiterate person, appears to be of the age of Henry the Seventh, that is, about the year 1500; but the composition (which he has irremediably corrupted) is probably of an earlier period, and much older, no doubt, than “The Play of Robyn Hode,” which seems allusive to the same story. At the end of the original is “Expleycyt Robyn Hode.” {82}

In schomer, when the leves spryng,

The bloschems on every bowe,

So merey doyt the berdys syng,

Yn wodys merey now.

Herkens, god yemen,

Comley, cortessey, and god,

On of the best that yever bar bou,

Hes name was Roben Hode.