Also Roxburghe, III, 12, 486; Old Ballads, 1723, II, 121; Douce, III, 121, London, by L. How, of the last century.
Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 97, from a, with changes. Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 160, agrees nearly with the Aldermary garland.
Entered, says Ritson, in the Stationers' book, by Francis Grove, 2d June, 1656.[foot-note] Being directed to be sung to the tune "R.H. was a tall young man," that is, R.H.'s Progress to Nottingham, this ballad is the later of the two.
Robin Hood, disguised as a friar, asks charity of two priests. They pretend to have been robbed, and not to have a penny. Robin pulls them from their horses, saying, Since you have no money, we will pray for some, and keeps them at their prayers for an hour. Now, he says, we will see what heaven has sent us; but the monks can find nothing in their pockets. We must search one another, Robin says, and beginning the operation finds five hundred pounds on the monks. Of this he gives fifty pounds to each of the priests to pay for their prayers, keeping the remainder. The priests would now move on, but Robin requires three oaths of them, of truth, chastity and charity, before he lets them go.
The kernel of the story is an old tale which we find represented in Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst, 1533, Osterley, p. 397, Anhang, No 14, 'Wie drey lantzknecht vmb ein zerung batten.' Three soldiers, out of service, meet the cellarer of a rich Benedictine cloister, who has a bag hanging at his saddle-bow, with four hundred ducats in it. They ask for some money, for God's sake and good fellowship's. The cellarer answers that he has no money: there is nothing but letters in his bag. Then, since we all four are without money, they say, we will kneel down and pray for some. After a brief orison, the three jump up, search the bag, and find four hundred ducats. The cellarer offers them a handsome douceur, and says he had the money in the bag before; but to this they will give no credence. They give the monk his share of one hundred, and thank God devoutly for his grace. Retold by Waldis, with a supplement, Esopus, IV, 21, ed. Kurz, II, 64; and by others, see Oesterley's notes, p. 552, Kurz's, p. 156.
a seems to be signed L.P., and these would most naturally be the initials of the versifier.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 198, by Anastasius Grün, p. 131.
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