A copy in Roxburghe, III, 450, printed by L. How, in Petticoat Lane, is of the eighteenth century. In Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 82, "from an old black-letter copy in a private collection, compared with another in that of Anthony a Wood." In Evans's Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 149, from an Aldermary garland.
Robin Hood has made Queen Katherine his friend by presenting her with a sum of gold which he had taken from the king's harbingers. The king has offered a heavy wager that his archers cannot be excelled, and the queen may have her choice of all other bowmen in England. Availing herself of these terms, the queen summons Robin Hood and his men, who are to come to London on St. George's day, under changed names. She hopes to have Robin relieved of his outlawry. The king's archers lead off, and make three. The ladies think the queen has no chance. She asks Sir Richard Lee, known to us already from the Gest, to be on her side. Sir Richard Lee, we are told, is sprung from Gawain's blood (A, Gower's, Gowrie's in other texts), and naturally would deny nothing to a lady. The Bishop of Hereford declines to be of the queen's party, but stakes a large sum on the king's men. The queen's archers shoot, and the game stands three and three; the queen bids the king beware. The third three shall pay for all, says the king. It is now time for the outlaws to do their best. Loxly, as Robin Hood is called, leads off. The particulars of the outlaws' exploits are wanting in A.
In B, C, Robin's feat is obscurely described. Clifton, who represents Scarlet (for in B, C, contrary to older tradition, Scarlet seems to be put before John), cleaves the willow wand, and Midge (Mutch), the Miller's Son, who, according to A 10, is John, is but little behind him.[foot-note] The queen, to assure the safety of her men, begs the boon that the king will not be angry with any of her party, and the king replies, Welcome, friend or foe.
After this there is no occasion for concealment. The Bishop of Hereford, learning who Loxly is, says that Robin is only too old an acquaintance; Robin had once made him say a mass at two in the afternoon, and borrowed money of him which had never been repaid. Robin offers to pay him for the mass by giving half of the gold back. Small thanks, says the bishop, for paying me with my own money. King Henry, quite outstripping even the easiness of Edward in the Gest, says he loves Robin never the worse, and invites him to leave his outlaws and come live at the court, a proposal which is peremptorily rejected. This is a very pleasant ballad, with all the exaggeration, and it is much to be regretted that one half of A is lost.
C is a piece of regular hack-work, and could not maintain itself in competition with B, upon which, perhaps, it was formed. It will be observed that Sir Richard Lee is changed into Sir Robert Lee in C, and that the thirty-fourth stanza represents the king as subsequently making Robin Hood Earl of Huntington.
The adventure of the Bishop of Hereford with Robin Hood is the subject of a separate ballad, now found only in a late form: see No 144.
Loxly, the name given to Robin in the present ballad, is, according to the Life in the Sloane Manuscript, a town in Yorkshire, "or after others in Nottinghamshire," where Robin was born. The ballad of Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, etc., following the same tradition, or invention, says "Locksly town in Nottinghamshire." It appears from Spencer Hall's Forester's Offering, London, 1841, that there is a Loxley Chase near Sheffield, in Yorkshire, and a Loxley River too: Gutch, I, 75.
Finsbury field was long a noted place for the practice of archery. In the year 1498, says Stow, all the gardens which had continued time out of mind without Moorgate, to wit, about and beyond the lordship of Fensberry, were destroyed. And of them was made a plain field for archers to shoot in. Survey of London, 1598, p. 351, cited, with other things pertinent, by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 86 f.
R.H. and the Shepherd, R.H. rescuing Will Stutly, and R.H.'s Delight, are directed to be sung to the tune of R.H. and Queen Katherine, B, and may therefore be inferred to be of later date. R.H.'s Progress to Nottingham is to be sung to "Bold Robin Hood," and as this conjunction of words occurs several times in R.H. and Queen Katherine, and the burden and its disposition, in the Progress to Nottingham, are the same as in R.H. and Queen Katherine, "Bold Robin Hood" may indicate this present ballad. R.H. and Queen Katherine, C, is directed to be sung to the tune of The Pinder of Wakefield. R.H.'s Chase is a sequel to R.H. and Queen Katherine.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 172.
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