Also Pepys, II, 122, No 107, by Alexander Milbourne (1670-97): Old Ballads, 1723, II, 39.
a is printed in Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 19. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 102, apparently follows the Aldermary Churchyard garland.
Robin Hood, while ranging the forest, sees a bishop and all his men coming, and, knowing that if he is taken no mercy will be given him, asks the help of an old woman, to whom he makes himself known. The old woman has had a kindness from him, and wishes to return it. She consents to exchange her gray coat and spindle for his green mantle and arrows, and Robin makes for his band in this disguise. The bishop carries off the old woman on a horse, making no doubt that he has Robin in custody, but, as he proceeds through the wood, sees a hundred bowmen, and asks his prisoner what this may be. I think it be Robin Hood, says the supposed outlaw. "And who are you?" "Why, I am an old woman." The bishop turns about, but Robin stays him, ties him to a tree, takes five hundred pound from his portmantle, and then is willing he should go. But Little John will not let him off till he has sung a mass; after which the bishop is mounted on his dapple-gray, with his face to the tail, and told to pray for Robin Hood.
This ballad and the following are variations upon the theme of Robin Hood and the Monk, in the Gest. The disguise as a woman occurs in other outlaw stories; as in Eustace the Monk, Michel, p. 43. Also in Blind Harry's Wallace, ed. Moir, Book I, 239, and Book IV, 764, pp 9, 72: in the first case Wallace has a rock and sits spinning. See also the ballad of Gude Wallace, further on.
We hear again of the forced mass, st. 23, in Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, A 31, B 40; and of money borrowed against the bishop's will, in A 32 of the same. It is the Bishop of Hereford who suffers: see the ballad which follows.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 203; Anastasius Grün, p. 113.
This page most recently updated on 30-Mar-2011, 05:03:15. Return to main index
