“Were he as good as George a Greene, I would strike him sure.”
[19] There is an edition in 1706, 8vo.
[20] Scotish Poems, i. 122.
[21] Surely the “lady” alluded to in the old May-game cannot be our Maid Marian. The earliest notice of her occurs in Barclay’s Egloges, about 1500, where she is evidently connected with Robin Hood. See Note [26.]
[22] Without “the ancient songs,” to which the Doctor refers, are confined to his “old MS.,” he evidently asserts what he would probably find it difficult to prove. As for the passage he produces, it seems nothing to the purpose; as, in the first place, it is apparently not “antient,” and, in the second, it is apparently not from a “song of Robin Hood.”
[23] Mr. Warton, having observed that “The play of Robin and Marian is said to have been performed by the school-boys of Angiers, according to annual custom, in the year 1392: The boys were deguisiez, says the old French record; and they had among them un fillette desguisee (Carpent. Du Cange, v. Robinet-Pentecoste),” adds, “Our old character of Mayd Marian may be hence illustrated” (His. En. po. i. 245). This, indeed, seems sufficiently plausible; but unfortunately the Robin and Marian of Angiers are not the Robin and Marian of Sherwood. The play is still extant. See Fabliaux ou Contes, Paris, 1781, ii. 144. There are, likewise, some very ancient pastoral ballads on the subject of these two lovers. See La Borde, Essai sur la Musique, ii. 163, 215. But, in fact, the names of Robin and Marion seem to have been used by the chansonniers of antiquity like those of Colin and Phœbe, &c.
[24] In 1592, Richard Jones, stationer, entered on the Company’s books, “A plesant fancie, or merrie conceyt, called the passion et morrys, daunst by a crue of 8 couple of wores.
[25] “The quarry from whence King Wolfere fetched stones for his royal structure [i.e. Peterborough] was undoubtedly that of Bernach near unto Stamford . . . . And I find in the charter of K. Edward the Confessor, which he granted to the abbot of Ramsey, that the abbot of Ramsey should give to the abbot and convent of Peterburgh 4000 eeles in the time of Lent, and in consideration thereof the abbot of Peterburgh should give to the abbot of Ramsey as much freestone from his pitts in Bernack, and as much ragstone from his pitts in Peterburgh as he should need. Nor did the abbot of Peterburgh from these pits furnish only that but other abbies also, as that of St. Edmunds-Bury: in memory whereof there are two long stones yet standing upon a balk in Castor-field, near unto Gunwade-ferry; which erroneous tradition hath given out to be draughts of arrows from Alwalton churchyard thither; the one of Robin Hood, and the other of Little John; but the truth is, they were set up for witnesses, that the carriages of stone from Bernack to Gunwade-ferry, to be conveyed to S. Edmunds-Bury, might pass that way without paying toll; and in some old terrars they are called S. Edmund’s stones. These stones are nicked in their tops after the manner of arrows, probably enough in memory of S. Edmund, who was shot to death with arrows by the Danes” (Gunton’s History of the Church of Peterburgh, 1686, p. 4).
[26] “In this relation,” Mr. Walker observes, “the Doctor not only evinces his credulity, but displays his ignorance of archery; for the ingenious and learned Mr. Barrington, than whom no man can be better informed on the subject, thinks that eleven score and seven yards is the utmost extent that an arrow can be shot from a long bow” (Archæologia, vol. viii.) According to tradition, he adds, Little John shot an arrow from the Old-bridge, Dublin, to the present site of St. Michael’s church, a distance not exceeding, he believes, that mentioned by Mr. Barrington (Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish, p. 129).
What Mr. Barrington “thinks” may be true enough, perhaps, of the Toxophilite Society and other modern archers; but people should not talk of Robin Hood who never shot in his bow. The above ingenious writer’s censure of Dr. Hanmer’s credulity and ignorance, seems to be misapplied, since he cannot be supposed to believe what he holds not for truth, and actually leaves among the lyes of the land.