The abrupt transition from the introductory verses, 1, 21,2, is found in Adam Bell, and the like occurs in other ballads.
A fragment of a dramatic piece founded on the ballad of Guy of Gisborne has been preserved in manuscript of the date of 1475, or earlier.[[82]] In this, a knight, not named, engages to take Robin Hood for the sheriff, and is promised gold and fee if he does. The knight accosts Robin, and proposes that they shoot together. They shoot, cast the stone, cast the axle-tree, perhaps wrestle (for the knight has a fall), then fight to the utterance. Robin has the mastery, cuts off the knight’s head, and dons his clothes, putting the head into his hood. He hears from a man who comes along that Robin Hood and his men have been taken by the sheriff, and says, Let us go kill the sheriff. Then follows, out of the order of time, as is necessary in so brief a piece, the capture of Friar Tuck and the others by the sheriff. The variations from the Percy MS. story may be arbitrary, or may be those of another version of the ballad. The friar is called Tuck, as in the other play: see Robin Hood and the Potter.
‘Syr sheryffë, for thy sakë,
Robyn Hode wull Y takë.’
‘I wyll the gyffë golde and fee,
This behestë þou holdë me.’
‘Robyn Hode, ffayre and fre,
Vndre this lyndë shotë we.’
‘With the shote Y wyll,
Alle thy lustës to full fyll.’