Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 162, "from the common collection of Aldermary Church Yard;" Evans, Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 218; Gutch, Robin Hood, II, 281, Ritson's copy "compared with one in the York edition."
The ballad is not found in a garland of 1749; but this garland has only twenty-four pieces.
The story, as far as st. 38, is a loose paraphrase, with omissions, of the seventh and eighth fits of the Gest, and seems, like the two which here follow it, "to have been written by some miserable retainer to the press, merely to eke out the book; being, in fact, a most contemptible performance:" Ritson.
121 may have been borrowed from Martin Parker's True Tale, No 154, 151. By the clergyman who was first Robin Hood's bane, 291, is meant the prior of York, who in Munday's play, The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, procures his outlawry. The forcing of the sheriff to give the king a supper may be the beggarly author's own invention. The last two lines are intended to serve as a link with Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight, which, however, does not immediately succeed in the garlands, Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow being interposed.
Translated by Doenniges, p. 185; A. Grün, p. 159; Loève-Veimars, p. 212.
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