ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTALL FRYER
OF FOUNTAINS ABBEY.
The Curtal Friar here mentioned is undoubtedly the person so frequently occurring in the ballads, as one of the companions of Robin Hood, under the name of Friar Tuck. He is thus mentioned by Skelton, laureate, in his "Goodly Interlude of Magnificence," written about the year 1500, and with an evident allusion to some game now forgotten:—
"Another bade shave halfe my berde,
And boyes to the pylery gan me plucke,
And wolde have made me freer Tucke,
To preche oute of the pylery hole."
The Curtal Friars were named, according to Dr. Stukeley, from the cord or rope which they wore round their waist, to whip themselves with, and were of the Franciscan order. Our friar is undoubtedly so called from his curtal dogs, or curs as we now call them, for in fact he was not a friar, but a monk of Fountains Abbey, which was of the Cistercian order. Robin Hood's bow is said by Ray to have been preserved in Fountains Abbey.[35]
The following ballad is from an old black-letter copy in the collection of A. à Wood, corrected by a much earlier one in the Pepysian library, printed by H. Gosson, circa 1610.