[67]. Bernardo del Montijo, Duran, No 1342, kills an alcalde at the age of eighteen, “con bastante causa:” upon which phrase Duran observes, “para el vulgo era bastante causa, sin duda, el ser alcalde.” Beginning with so much promise of spirit, he afterwards, in carrying off his mistress, who was about to be wedded against her will, kills six constables, a corregidor, the bridegroom, and a captain of the guard. For differences, compare the English broadside R. H. and Allen-a-Dale, No 138.
[68]. “Doch sind sie meist ohne grossen poetischen Werth, nur als Zeugniss für die Denkweise des Volkes über die ‘armen Bursche,’ die es lange nicht für so grosse Verbrecher hält als der Staat, und die es, ihre Vorurtheile theilend, im Gegentheile oft als kühne Freiheitshelden betrachtet, die gegen grössere oder kleinere Tyrannen sich zu erheben und denselben zu trotzen wagen, und als ungerecht verfolgte Söhne seines Stammes in Schutz nimmt gegen die fremden Gesetzvollstrecker.” (Aigner, Ungarische Volksdichtungen, p. xxvi f.)
[69]. J. Hunter (Critical and Historical Tracts, No IV), whom I follow here, shows that Barnsdale was peculiarly unsafe for travellers in Edward the First’s time. Three ecclesiastics, conveyed from Scotland to Winchester, had a guard, sometimes of eight archers, sometimes of twelve, or, further south, none at all; but when they passed from Pontefract to Tickhill, the number was increased to twenty, propter Barnsdale: p. 14.
[70]. Hunter suspects that the Nottinghamshire knight, Sir Richard at the Lee, in the latter half of the Gest, was originally a different person from the knight in the former half, “the knight of the Barnsdale ballads,” p. 25. Fricke makes the same suggestion, Die Robin-Hood Balladen, p. 19. This may be, but the reasons offered are not quite conclusive.
[71]. And so, as to Nottingham and Barnsdale, in No 118; and perhaps No 121, for the reference to Wentbridge, st. 6, would imply that Robin Hood is in Barnsdale rather than Sherwood.
[72]. I say Barnsdale, though the place is not specified, and though Sherwood would remove or reduce the difficulty as to distance. We have nothing to do with Sherwood in the Gest: a rational topography is out of the question. In the seventh fit the king starts from Nottingham, 365, walks “down by yon abbey,” 368, and ere he comes to Nottingham, 370, falls in with Robin, 375.
[73]. This was a custom of Arthur’s only upon certain holidays, according to the earlier representation, but in later accounts is made general. For romances, besides these mentioned at I, 257, in which this way of Arthur’s is noted (Rigomer, Jaufré, etc.), see Gaston Paris, Les Romans en vers du Cycle de la Table Ronde, Histoire Litt. de la France, XXX, 49.
[74]. Pothouis Liber de Miraculis S. D. G. Mariæ, c. 33, p. 377; Vincentius B., Speculum Hist., vii. c. 82. Mussafia, Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad., Phil.-Hist. Classe, CXIII, 960–91, notes nine Latin copies, besides that attributed to Potho, in MSS mostly of the 13th century. Gautier de Coincy, ed. Poquet, cols. 543–52; Adgar’s Marienlegenden, Neuhaus, p. 176, No 29; Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages, G. Paris et U. Robert, VI, 171–223, No 35; Romania, VIII, 16, No 3 (Provençal). Berceo, in Sanchez, II, 367, No 23. Unger, Mariu Saga, No 15, pp. 87–92, 1064–67. Mone’s Anzeiger, VIII, col. 355, No 8, as a broadside ballad. Afanasief, Skazki, vii, No 49, as a popular tale, the Jew changed to a Tartar, and the Cross taken as surety, Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 27. “God-borg” in Alfred’s Laws, c. 33, Schmid, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p. 88 f., was perhaps only an asseveration with an invocation of the Deity, like the Welsh “briduw.” And so “Ich wil dir got ze bürgen geben,” “Got den wil ich ze bürgen han,” in the Ritter v. Staufenberg, vv. 403, 405, Jänicke, Altdeutsche Studien.
[75]. Le Doctrinal de Sapience, fol. 67 b, cited by Legrand, is not to the purpose. Scala Celi refers to a Speculum Exemplorum.
In Peele’s Edward I, the friar, having lost five nobles at dice to St Francis, pays them to St Francis’ receiver; but presently wins a hundred marks of the saint, and makes the receiver pay. (The story has in one point a touch of the French fabliau.) Peele’s Works, ed. Dyce, I, 157–61.