“It is no laughyng matter, my frendes, it is a weepyng matter, a heavy matter, under the pretence for gatherynge for Robin Hoode, a traytour[76] and a theefe, to put out a preacher, to have his office lesse esteemed, to preferre Robin Hoode before the ministration of God’s worde, and all this hath come of unpreaching prelates. Thys realme hath bene ill provided for, that it hath had suche corrupte judgementes in it, to preferre Robin Hoode to God’s worde. If the bishoppes had bene preachers, there shoulde never have bene any such thing,” &c.
(32) —“may be called the patron of archery.”] The bow and arrow makers, in particular, have always held his memory in the utmost reverence. Thus, in the old ballad of London’s Ordinary:
“The hosiers will dine at the Leg,
The drapers at the sign of the Brush,
The fletchers to Robin Hood will go,
And the spendthrift to Beggar’s-bush.” [77]
The picture of our hero is yet a common sign in the country, and, before hanging-signs were abolished in London, must have been still more so in the City; there being at present no less than a dozen alleys, courts, lanes, &c., to which he or it has given a name. (See Baldwin’s New Complete Guide, 1770.) The Robin Hood Society, a club or assembly for public debate, or school for oratory, is well known. It was held at a public-house, which had once borne the sign, and still retained the name of this great man, in Butcher Row, near Temple Bar.
It is very usual in the North of England for a publican whose name fortunately happens to be John Little to have {xcv} the sign of Robin Hood and his constant attendant, with this quibbling subscription:
“You gentlemen, and yeomen good,
Come in and drink with Robin Hood;
If Robin Hood be not at home,
Come in and drink with Little John.” [78]
An honest countryman, admiring the conceit, adopted the lines, with a slight, but, as he thought, necessary alteration, viz.:
“If Robin Hood be not at home,
Come in and drink with—Simon Webster.”
Drayton, describing the various ensigns or devices of the English counties at the battle of Agincourt, gives to
“Old Nottingham, an archer clad in green,
Under a tree with his drawn bow that stood,
Which in a chequer’d flag far off was seen;
It was the picture of old Robin Hood.”