“Exclude the scriptures, and bid them read the story

Of Robin Hood and Guy, which was both tall and stout,

And Bevis of Southampton, to seek the matter out.

Suffer all slander against God and his truth,

And praise the old fashion in king Arthur’s days,

Of abbays and monasteries how it is great ruth

To have them plucked down, and so the eldest says;

And how it was merry when Robin Hood’s plays

Was in every town, the morrice and the fool,

The maypole and the drum, to bring the calf from school,

With Midge, Madge and Marion, about the pole to dance,

And Stephen, that tall stripling, to lead Volans dance,

With roguing Gangweeke, a goodly remembrance,

With beads in every hand, our prayers stood by tale:

This was a merry work, talk among our meany,

And then of good eggs ye might have twenty for a penny.”

L. Ramsey’s Practice of the Divell, b. l.

All the entire poems and songs known to be extant will be found in the following collection; but many more may be traditionally preserved in different parts of the country which would have added considerably to its value.[67] That {lxxxii} some of these identical pieces, or others of the like nature, were great favourites with the common people in the time of Queen Elizabeth, though not much esteemed, it would seem, by the refined critic, may, in addition to the testimonies already cited, be inferred from a passage in Webbe’s Discourse {lxxxiii} of English Poetrie, printed in 1586. “If I lette passe,” says he, “the unaccountable rabble of ryming ballet-makers and compylers of sencelesse sonets, who be most busy to stuffe every stall full of grosse devises and unlearned pamphlets, I trust I shall with the best sort be held excused. For though many such can frame an alehouse-song of five or sixe score verses, hobbling uppon some tune of a northern jygge, or Robyn Hoode, or La lubber, &c. and perhappes observe just number of sillables, eyght in one line, sixe in an other, and therewithall an A to make a jercke in the ende, yet if these might be accounted poets (as it is sayde some of them make meanes to be promoted to the lawrell), surely we shall shortly have whole swarmes of poets; and every one that can frame a booke in ryme, though, for want of matter, it be but in commendations of copper noses, or bottle ale, wyll catch at the garlande due to poets: whose potticall (poeticall, I should say) heades, I woulde wyshe, at their worshipfull comencements, might, in steede of lawrell, be gorgiously garnished with fayre greene barley, in token of their good affection to our Englishe malt.” The chief object of this satire seems to be William Elderton, the drunken {lxxxiv} ballad-maker, of whose compositions all but one or two have unfortunately perished.[68]

Most of the songs inserted in the second half of this volume were common broad-sheet ballads, printed in black letter, with woodcuts, between the Restoration and the Revolution; though copies of some few have been found of an earlier date. “Who was the author of the collection intitled Robin Hood’s Garland, no one,” says Sir John Hawkins, “has yet pretended to guess. As some of the songs have in them more of the spirit of poetry than others, it is probable,” he thinks, “it is the work of various hands: that it has from time to time been varied and adapted to the phrase of the times,” he says, “is certain.” None of these songs, it is believed, were collected into a garland till after the Restoration; as the earliest that has been met with, a copy of which is in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq., was printed by W. Thackeray, a noted ballad-monger, in 1670. This, however, contains no more than sixteen songs, some of which, very falsely as it seems, are said to have been “never before printed.” “The latest edition of any worth,” according to Sir John Hawkins, “is that of 1719.” None of the old editions of this garland have any sort of preface: that prefixed to the modern ones, of Bow or Aldermary churchyard, being {lxxxv} taken from the collection of old ballads, 1723, where it is placed at the head of Robin Hood’s birth and breeding. The full title of the last London edition of any note is—“Robin Hood’s Garland: being a complete history of all the notable and merry exploits performed by him and his men on many occasions: To which is added a preface [i.e. the one already mentioned] giving a more full and particular account of his birth, &c., than any hitherto published. [Cut of archers shooting at a target.]

I’ll send this arrow from my bow,

And in a wager will be bound

To hit the mark aright, although

It were for fifteen hundred pound.

Doubt not I’ll make the wager good,

Or ne’er believe bold Robin Hood.

Adorned with twenty-seven neat and curious cuts adapted to the subject of each song. London, Printed and sold by R. Marshall, in Aldermary church-yard, Bow-lane.” 12mo. On the back of the title-page is the following Grub-street address:

“To all gentlemen archers.

“This garland has been long out of repair,

Some songs being wanting, of which we give account;

For now at last, by true industrious care,

The sixteen songs to twenty-seven we mount;

Which large addition needs must please, I know,

All the ingenious ‘yeomen’ of the bow.

To read how Robin Hood and Little John,

Brave Scarlet, Stutely, valiant, bold and free,

Each of them bravely, fairly play’d the man,

While they did reign beneath the green-wood tree;

Bishops, friars, likewise many more,

Parted with their gold, for to increase their store,

But never would they rob or wrong the poor.”

The last seven lines are not by the author of the first six, but were added afterwards; perhaps when the twenty-four songs were increased to twenty-seven.[69] {lxxxvi}

(28) —“has given rise to divers proverbs.”] Proverbs, in all countries, are, generally speaking, of very great antiquity; and therefore it will not be contended that those concerning our hero are the oldest we have. It is highly probable, however, that they originated in or near his own time, and of course have existed for upwards of 500 years, which is no modern date. They are here arranged, not, perhaps, according to their exact chronological order, but by the age of the authorities they are taken from.

1. “Good even, good Robin Hood.”

The allusion is to civility extorted by fear. It is preserved by Skelton, in that most biting satire against Cardinal Wolsey, “Why come ye not to court?” (Works, 1736, p. 147).