B is also in the Roxburghe collection, III, 10.
B a is printed in Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 128. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 196 follows the Aldermary garland.
A. Little John, meaning to go a begging, induces an old mendicant to change clothes with him and to give him some hints how to conduct himself. Thus prepared he attempts to attach himself to three palmers, who, however, do not covet his company. One of the palmers gives John a whack on the head. We may conjecture, from the course of the story in B, that John serves them all accordingly, and takes from them so much money that, if he had kept on in this way, he might, as he says, have bought churches.
The beginning of A is very like that of Robin Hood rescuing Three Squires, A; but the disguise is for a different object. We are reminded again of Hind Horn, and particularly of versions C, G, H, in which the beggar, after change of clothes, is asked for instructions.
B. John is deputed by Robin to go a begging, and asks to be provided with staff, coat, and bags. He joins four sham beggars, one of whom takes him a knock on the crown. John makes the dumb to speak and the halt to run, and bangs them against the wall, then gets from one's cloak three hundred pound, and from another's bag three hundred and three, which he thinks is doing well enough to warrant his return to Sherwood.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 155.
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