Myselfe remembreth of a childe, in contreye native mine,
A Maygame 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, etc.
Richard Robinson, 1553, in Ritson, p. cxii f, ed. 1832.
[53]. A Christmas game of very modern date is described in The Mirror, XXVI, 42, in which there was a troop of morris-dancers with Robin Hood and Maid Marian; and also Beelzebub and his wife. Cited by Kuhn, Haupt’s Zeitschrift, V, 481.
[54]. The entries in the Kingston accounts for 28 and 29 Henry VIII, if they refer to the morris-dance only, would show the morris to be constituted as follows:
(28 Henry VIII.) Four dancers, fool, Maid Marian, friar, and piper. A minstrel is also mentioned.
(29 Henry VIII.) Friar, Maid Marian, Morian (Moor?), four dancers, fool. This entry refers to the costume of the characters, which may account for the omission of the piper. Lysons, Environs of London, I, 228 f.