'Robin Hood and the Butcher' (No. 122) repeats many of the incidents of the present ballad. There are only too many variations of the adventure in which Robin Hood unexpectedly meets his match in a hand-to-hand fight, now with a pinder, then with a tanner, tinker, shepherd, beggar, etc. His adversaries, after proving their mettle, are sometimes invited and induced to join his company: not so here. In some broadside ballads of this description, with an extravagance common enough in imitations, Robin Hood is very badly mauled, and made all but contemptible. The Play of Robin Hood, an imperfect copy of which is printed at the end of Copland's and of White's edition of the Gest, is founded on the present ballad and on No. 123.
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