There is a black-letter copy, printed by and for W. Onley, in Lord Crawford's collection, No, 1320; the date put at 1680-85. A whiteletter copy is in Roxburghe, in, 728 (see Ebsworth's Roxburghe Ballads, vm, 504). 'Robin Hood and Little John' belongs to a set of ballads which have middle rhyme in the third line of the stanza, and are directed to be sung to one and the same tune. These are: 'Robin Hood and the Bishop' (No, 143); 'Robin Hood and the Beggar' (No, 133); 'Robin Hood and the Tanner' (No, 126), to the tune of 'Robin Hood and the Stranger;' 'Robin Hood and the Butcher' (No, 122); 'Robin Hood's Chase' (No, 146); 'Little John and the Four Beggars' (No, 142 B), to the tune of 'Robin Hood and the Beggar;' 'Robin Hood and Little John;' 'Robin Hood and the Ranger' (No, 131), to the tune of 'Arthur a Bland' (that is, 'Robin Hood and the Tanner'). There is no ballad with the title 'Robin Hood and the Stranger.' Ritson gave this title to a ballad which uniformly bears the title of 'Robin Hood Newly Revived' (No, 128), but 'Robin Hood and Little John,' or rather some older version of it (for the one we have is in rank seventeenthcentury style), is more likely to be meant. 'A pastorall plesant commedie of Robin Hood and Little John, etc.,' is entered to Edward White in the Stationers' Registers, May 14, 1594, and 'Robin Hood and Little John' to Master Oulton, April 22, 1640.
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