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, st. 9, and in No, 147, st. 1. Even in Barclay's fourth eclogue, written not long after 1500, where, according to Ritson, 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 Maid 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 on 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 There she lives a spotless maiden, awaiting the time when the outlawry shall be repealed and Robin may legally take her to wife.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.
This page most recently updated on 09-Dec-2010, 23:25:25. Return to main index
