Child Ballads - Narrative

Robin Hood and the Ranger

1. 'Robin Hood and the Ranger.'
   1. Robin Hood's Garland, London, C. Dicey, in Bow Church-Yard, n.d., but before 1741, p. 78.
   2. R.H.'s Garland, London, W. & C. Dicey, n.d.
   3. R.H.'s Garland, London, L. How, in Peticoat Lane, n.d.
   4. The English Archer, etc., York, N. Nickson, in Feasegate, n.d.
   5. The English Archer, etc., Paisley, John Neilson, 1786.
   6. R.H.'s Garland, York, T. Wilson & R. Spence, n.d.
   (All in the Bodleian Library.) Version A

In Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 133, from a York edition of Robin Hood's Garland. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 200, apparently from an Aldermary garland.

Mr. Halliwell, in Notices of Fugitive Tracts, etc., Percy Society, vol. xxix. p. 19, refers to an edition of Robin Hood's Garland printed for James Hodges, at the Looking-glass, London-bridge, n.d., as containing "the earliest copy yet known" of Robin Hood and the Ranger, but does not indicate how the alleged fact was ascertained. Inside of the cover of a is written, William Stukely, 1741. b appears in advertisements as early as 1753.

Robin Hood, while about to kill deer, is forbidden by a forester, and claiming the forest as his own, the cause has to be tried with weapons. They break their swords on one another, and take to quarter-staves. Robin Hood is so sorely cudgelled that he gives up the fight, declaring that he has never met with so good a man. He summons his yeomen with his horn; the forester is induced to join them.

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