[3277], [3278]. rymes of Robyn Hood | and Randolf erl of Chestre. This seems to be the earliest mention of the ballads of Robin Hood which can now be found. Ritson was quite mistaken (Robin Hood, Introd. p. xlix) in the supposed mention of him by the prior of Alnwick, the title of the Latin song being modern. The passage of Fordun, in which Robin Hood is spoken of, is probably an interpolation.
I am not sure that Ritson is right in taking the Randolf erl of Chester of Piers Ploughman, to be Ranulf de Blundevile: it is quite as probable that he was the Ranulf of Chester of the days of Stephen, whose turbulent deeds may have been the subject of popular ballads. Warton (H. E. P. ii, 373), quoting the passage of Piers Ploughman with the word erl omitted, conceives it to mean Ralph Higden, and imagines the rymes to be the Chester Mysteries, of which he conjectured that Ralph Higden was the author.
[3311]. Ite missa est. The concluding sentence of the service of the Mass.
[3408]. the Rode of Chestre. There was a celebrated cross or rood at Chester, which was long an object of great veneration, and even of pilgrimage, among our Roman Catholic forefathers. "I do not recollect any thing remarkable (says Mr. Pennant, speaking of Chester) on the outside of the walls which has been unnoticed, unless it be the Rood-eye, and the adjacent places."—"The name of this spot is taken from eye, its watery situation, and rood, the cross which stood there, whose base is still to be seen." Pennant's Tour in Wales, edit. 1778, p. 191. According to Gough's Camden, the base was still remaining in 1789.
[3410]. Roberd the robbere. This name is rather curious in conjunction with the term Roberdesmen mentioned in the [note] on l. 88. It was no uncommon practice to give punning names in this way to people or classes of people. In a Latin song of the reign of Henry III (Political Songs, p. 49), we have a very curious instance of it, one of the names being, as here, Robert:—
Competentur per Robert, robbur designatur; Robertus excoriat, extorquet, et minatur.— Vir quicunque rabidus consors est Roberto.
Still earlier (12th cent.) a scribe says of one of his brothers, "Secundus dicebatur Robertus, quia a re nomen habuit, spoliator enim diu fuit et prædo." (Polit. Songs, p. 354.)
[3419]. Dysmas. In middle-age legends, Dismas and Gestas were the names of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ. The former was the one who believed in the Saviour, and received a promise of paradise.
[3443]. Before this line, Whitaker's text has the following passage:—
Ac whiche be the braunches