Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 157, from Wood's copy. In none of the garlands.
The Earl of Huntington, alias Robin Hood, is forced by fortune's spite to part from his love Marian, and take to the green wood. Marian dresses herself "like a page," and, armed with bow, sword, and buckler, goes in quest of Robin. Both being disguised, neither recognizes the other until they have had an hour at swords, when Robin Hood, who has lost some blood, calls to his antagonist to give over and join his band. Marian knows his voice, and discovers herself. A banquet follows, and Marian remains in the wood.
Though Maid Marian and Robin Hood had perhaps been paired in popular sports, no one thought of putting more of her than her name into a ballad, until one S.S. (so the broadside is signed) composed this foolish ditty. The bare name of Maid Marian occurs in No 145 A, 94 and in No 147, 14.
Even in Barclay's fourth eclogue, written not long after 1500, where, according to Ritson,[foot-note] the earliest notice of Maid Marian occurs, and where, he says, "she is evidently connected with Robin Hood," the two are really kept distinct; for the lusty Codrus in that eclogue wishes to hear "some mery fit of Maide Marion, or els of Robin Hood."
In Munday's play of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, Matilda, otherwise Marian, daughter to Lord Lacy, accompanies Earl Robert to Sherwood, upon his being outlawed for debt the very day of their trothplight. There she lives a spotless maiden, awaiting the time when the outlawry shall be repealed and Robin may legally take her to wife. Neither the author of the play nor that of the ballad was, so far as is known, repeating any popular tradition.
The ordinary partner of Maid Marian is Friar Tuck, not Robin Hood. There is no ground for supposing that there ever were songs or tales about the Maid and Friar, notwithstanding what is cursorily said by one of the characters in Peele's Edward I:
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 72, Loève-Veimars, p. 208.
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