“And, heare because of archery I do by penne explane,
The use, the proffet, and the praise, to England by the same,
(1553)
Myselfe remembreth of a childe in contreye native mine,(7. E. 6.)
A May-game was of Robyn Hood, and of his traine that time,To traine up young men, stripplings, and eche other younger childe,
In shooting, yearely this with solempne feast was by the guylde
Or brotherhood of townsmen don, with sport, with joy, and love,
To proffet which in present tyme, and afterward did prove.”
The games of Robin Hood seem to have been occasionally of a dramatic cast. Sir John Paston, in the time of King Edward IV., complaining of the ingratitude of his servants, mentions one who had promised never to desert him, “and ther uppon,” says he, “I have kepyd hym thys iii yer to pleye seynt Jorge, and Robyn Hod and the sheryf off Notyngham,[81] and now when I wolde have good horse he is goon into Bernysdale, and I withowt a keeper.”
In some old accounts of the churchwardens of St. Helen’s at Abingdon, Berks, for the year 1556, there is an entry For setting up Robin Hoodes Bower; I suppose, says {c} Warton, for a parish interlude. (See History of English Poetry, ii. 175.)[82] {ci}
In some places, at least, these games were nothing more, in effect, than a morris-dance, in which Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian, and Frier Tuck were the principal personages; the others being a clown or fool, the hobby-horse (which appears, for some reason or other, to have been frequently forgot[83]), the taborer, and the dancers, who were more or less numerous. Thus Warner:
“At Paske began our morrise, and ere penticost our May,
Tho Roben Hood, liell John, frier Tuck, and Marian deftly play,
And lard and ladie gang till kirke with lads and lasses gay.” [84]
Perhaps the clearest idea of these last-mentioned games, about the beginning of the 16th century, will be derived from some curious extracts given by Mr. Lysons in his valuable work intitled “The Environs of London” (vol. i. 1792, p. 226), from the contemporary accounts of the “churchwardens of the parish of Kingston upon Thames.”
| “23 Hen. 7. To the menstorell upon May-day | 0 | 0 | 4 |
 For paynting of the mores garments and for sarten gret leveres[85] | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| For paynting of a bannar for Robin Hode | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| For 2 M. & ½ pynnys | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| For 4 plyts and ½ of laun for the mores garments | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| For orseden[86] for the same | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| For a goun for the lady | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| For bellys for the dawnsars | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 24 Hen. 7. For little John’s cote | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| 1 Hen. 8. For silver paper for the mores dawnsars | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| For Kendall for Robyn Hode’s cote | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| For 3 yerds of white for the frere’s[87] cote | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| For 4 yards of kendall for mayde Marian’s[88] huke[89] | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| For saten of sypers for the same huke | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| For 2 payre of glovys for Robin Hode and mayde Maryan | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| For 6 brode arovys | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| To mayde Maryan for her labour for two years | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| To Fygge the taborer | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Recd for Robyn Hod’s gaderyng 4 marks[90] | |||
| 5 Hen. 8. Recd for Robin Hood’s gaderyng at Croydon | 0 | 9 | 4 |
| 11 Hen. 8. Paid for three broad yerds of rosett for maykng the frer’s cote | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Shoes for the mores daunsars, the frere and mayde Maryan at 7d a payre | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| 13 Hen. 8. Eight yerds of fustyan for the mores daunsars coats | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| A dosyn of gold skynnes for the morres[91] | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 15 Hen. 8. Hire of hats for Robynhode | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Paid for the hat that was lost | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 16 Hen. 8. Recd at the church-ale and Robyn-hode all things deducted | 3 | 10 | 6 |
| Paid for 6 yerds ¼ of satyn for Robyn Hode’s coyts | 0 | 12 | 6 |
| For makyng the same | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| For 3 ells of locram[92] | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 21 Hen. 8. For spunging and brushing Robyn-hode’s cotys | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 28 Hen. 8. Five hats and 4 porses for the daunsars | 0 | 0 | 4½ |
| 4 yerds of cloth for the fole’s cote | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 ells of worstede for mayde Maryans kyrtle | 0 | 6 | 8 |
| For 6 payre of double sollyd showne | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| To the mynstrele | 0 | 10 | 8 |
| To the fryer and the piper for to go to Croydon | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 29 Hen. 8. Mem. Lefte in the keping of the wardens nowe beinge. |
A fryers cote of russet and a kyrtele of worstyde weltyd with red cloth, a mowrens[93] cote of buckram, and 4 morres {cv} daunsars cotes of white fustian spangelyd and two gryne saten cotes and a dysardd’s[94] cote of cotton and 6 payre of garters with bells.”
These games appear to have been discontinued at Kingston, as a parochial undertaking at least, after the above period, as the industrious inquirer found no further entries relating to them.
Some of the principal characters of the morris seem to have gradually disappeared, so that at length it consisted only of the dancers, the piper, and the fool. In Mr. Tollet’s window we find neither Robin Hood nor Little John, though Marian and the frier are still distinguished performers.[95] But in the scene of one, introduced in the old play of Jacke Drum’s Entertainment, first printed in 1601, there is not the least symptom of any of the four.[96] “The taber and pipe strike up a morrice. A shoute within: A lord, a lord, a lord, who ! [97]