The Project Gutenberg EBook of Robin Hood, by Joseph Ritson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: Robin Hood A collection of all the ancient poems, songs, and ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English outlaw. To which are prefixed historical anecdotes of his life. Author: Joseph Ritson Illustrator: Thomas Bewick A.H. Tourrier E. Buckman Release Date: April 5, 2018 [EBook #56926] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBIN HOOD *** Produced by MWS, RichardW, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. Music transcribed by Linda Cantoni. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) ROBIN HOOD, a Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs and Ballads, now extant, Relative to that Cele‐ brated English Outlaw; by Joseph Ritson; With eighty Wood Engravings by Thomas Bewick and nine Etchings from original paintings by A.H. Tourrier and E. Buck‐ man. RO BI N HO O D. PUBLISHER’S NOTE. Of this fine Large Paper Edition one hundred copies are printed, each being numbered. The portrait and nine etchings are given in duplicate, one being printed on Whatman paper and the other on Japanese. No. 61 J. Ritson. J. Ritson. RITSON RO BI N HO O D A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs and Ballads, now extant, Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED HISTORICAL ANECDOTES OF HIS LIFE BY JOSEPH RITSON With Eighty Wood Engravings BY THOMAS BEWICK PRINTED ON CHINA PAPER Also Nine Etchings from Original Paintings BY A. H. TOURRIER AND E. BUCKMAN LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1885 PUBLISHER’S NOTICE. THIS edition of ROBIN HOOD is printed from that published in 1832, which was carefully edited and printed from Mr. RITSON’S own annotated edition of 1795. The original wood engravings, by the celebrated THOMAS BEWICK, have been again used; and from being printed on China paper, will be found superior in clearness and beauty to the first impression. The nine etchings now given have been newly etched from original pictures painted by A. H. TOURRIER and E. BUCKMAN. i xiv 1 81 97 114 126 149 161 166 170 175 181 189 197 203 209 217 235 244 249 254 262 268 274 280 285 290 298 303 309 314 323 330 CONTENTS. THE LIFE OF ROBIN HOOD NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Part the First. I. A LYTELL GESTE OF ROBYN HODE II. ROBIN HOOD [AND THE POTTER] III. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR IV. ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE V. A TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD Part the Second. I. ROBIN HOOD’S BIRTH, BREEDING, VALOUR, AND MARRIAGE II. ROBIN HOOD’S PROGRESS TO NOTTINGHAM III. THE JOLLY PINDER OF WAKEFIELD, WITH ROBIN HOOD, SCARLET, AND JOHN IV. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP V. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHER VI. ROBIN HOOD AND THE TANNER VII. ROBIN HOOD AND THE TINKER VIII. ROBIN HOOD AND ALLIN A DALE IX. ROBIN HOOD AND THE SHEPHERD X. ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTALL FRYER XI. ROBIN HOOD AND THE STRANGER XII. ROBIN HOOD AND QUEEN KATHERINE XIII. ROBIN HOOD’S CHASE XIV. ROBIN HOOD’S GOLDEN PRIZE XV. ROBIN HOOD RESCUING WILL STUTLY XVI. THE NOBLE FISHERMAN; OR, ROBIN HOOD’S PREFERMENT XVII. ROBIN HOOD’S DELIGHT XVIII. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR XIX. LITTLE JOHN AND THE FOUR BEGGARS XX. ROBIN HOOD AND THE RANGER XXI. ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN XXII. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD XXIII. ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW’S THREE SONS FROM THE SHERIFF WHEN GOING TO BE EXECUTED XXIV. ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN XXV. THE KING’S DISGUISE, AND FRIENDSHIP WITH ROBIN HOOD XXVI. ROBIN HOOD AND THE GOLDEN ARROW XXVII. ROBIN HOOD AND THE VALIANT KNIGHT 335 341 387 XXVIII. ROBIN HOOD’S DEATH AND BURIAL APPENDIX GLOSSARY Frontispiece Page xiv 6 14 58 89 132 168 252 336 LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS. PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH RITSON KIRKLEY HALL COURTESY OF LITTLE JOHN LITTLE JOHN AND THE KNIGHT ROBIN HOOD AND THE LADY THE BANQUET ROBIN HOOD AND THE ABBOT ROBIN HOOD AND THE PINDER THE PRAYER OF THE FRIARS ROBIN HOOD AND HIS BETRAYER T PREFACE. HE singular circumstance that the name of an outlawed individual of the twelfth or thirteenth century should continue traditionally popular, be chanted in ballads, and, as one may say, Familiar in our mouth as household words, at the end of the eighteenth, excited the editor’s curiosity to retrieve all the historical or poetical remains concerning him that could be met with: an object which he has occasionally pursued for many years; and of which pursuit he now publishes the result. He cannot, indeed, pretend that his researches, extensive as they must appear, have been attended with all the success he could have wished; but, at the same time, it ought to be acknowledged that many poetical pieces, of great antiquity and some merit, are deservedly rescued from oblivion. The materials collected for the “Life” of this celebrated character, which are either preserved at large or carefully referred to in the “Notes and Illustrations,” are not, it must be confessed, in every instance, so important, so ancient, or, perhaps, so authentic, as the subject seems to demand; although the compiler may be permitted to say, in humble second-hand imitation of the poet Martial: Some there are good, some middling, and some bad; But yet they were the best that could be had. Desirous to omit nothing that he could find upon the subject, he has everywhere faithfully vouched and exhibited his authorities, such as they are: it would, therefore, seem altogether uncandid or unjust to make him responsible for the want of authenticity of such of them as may appear liable to that imputation. I {ii} {iii} THE LIFE OF ROBIN HOOD. T will scarcely be expected that one should be able to offer an authentic narrative of the life and transactions of this extraordinary personage. The times in which he lived, the mode of life he adopted, and the silence or loss of contemporary writers, are circumstances sufficiently favourable, indeed, to romance, but altogether inimical to historical truth. The reader must, therefore, be contented with such a detail, however scanty or imperfect, as a zealous pursuit of the subject enables one to give; and which, though it may fail to satisfy, may possibly serve to amuse. No assistance has been derived from the labours of his professed biographers (1);1 and even the industrious Sir John Hawkins, from whom the public might have expected ample gratification upon the subject, acknowledges that “the history of this popular hero is but little known, and all the scattered fragments concerning him, could they be brought together, would fall far short of satisfying such an inquirer as none but real and authenticated facts will content. We must,” he says, “take his story as we find it.” He accordingly gives us nothing but two or three trite and trivial extracts, with which every one at all curious about the subject was as well acquainted as himself. It is not, at the same time, pretended, that the present attempt promises more than to bring together the scattered fragments to which the learned historian alludes. This, however, has been done, according to the best of the compiler’s information and abilities; and the result is, with a due sense of the deficiency of both, submitted to the reader’s candour. ROBIN HOOD was born at Locksley, in the county of Nottingham (2), in the reign of King Henry the Second, and about the year of Christ 1160 (3). His extraction was noble, and his true name ROBERT FITZOOTH, which vulgar pronunciation easily corrupted into ROBIN HOOD (4). He is frequently styled, and commonly reputed to have been, EARL OF HUNTINGDON; a title to which, in the latter part of his life, at least, he actually appears to have had some sort of pretension (5). In his youth he is reported to have been of a wild and extravagant disposition; insomuch that, his inheritance being consumed or forfeited by his excesses, and his person outlawed for debt, either from necessity or choice, he sought an asylum in the woods and forests, with which immense tracts, especially in the northern parts of the kingdom, were at that time covered (6). Of these, he chiefly affected Barnsdale, in Yorkshire, Sherwood, in Not​ting​‐ ham​shire, and, according to some, Plompton Park, in Cumberland (7). {iv} {v} Here he either found, or was afterward joined by, a number of persons in similar circumstances— “Such as the fury of ungovern’d youth Thrust from the company of awful men,” (8) who appear to have considered and obeyed him as their chief or leader, and of whom his principal favourites, or those in whose courage and fidelity he most confided, where Little John (whose surname is said to have been Nailor), William Scadlock (Scathelock or Scarlet), George a Green, pinder (or pound-keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller’s son, and a certain monk or frier named Tuck (9). He is likewise said to have been accompanied in his retreat by a female, of whom he was enamoured, and whose real or adopted name was Marian (10). His company, in process of time, consisted of a hundred archers; men, says Major, most skilful in battle, whom four times that number of the boldest fellows durst not attack (11). His manner of recruiting was somewhat singular; for, in the words of an old writer, “whersoever he hard of any that were of unusual strength and ‘hardines,’ he would desgyse himselfe, and, rather then fayle, go lyke a begger to become acquaynted with them; and, after he had tryed them with fyghting, never give them over tyl he had used means to drawe [them] to lyve after his fashion” (12): a practice of which numerous instances are recorded in the more common and popular songs, where, indeed, he seldom fails to receive a sound beating. In shooting with the long bow, which they chiefly practised, “they excelled all the men of the land; though, as occasion required, they had also other weapons” (13). In those forests, and with this company, he for many years reigned like an independent sovereign; at perpetual war, indeed, with the King of England, and all his subjects, with an exception, however, of the poor and needy, and such as were “desolate and oppressed,” or stood in need of his protection. When molested, by a superior force in one place, he retired to another, still defying the power of what was called law and government, and making his enemies pay dearly, as well for their open attacks, as for their clandestine treachery. It is not, at the same time, to be concluded that he must, in this opposition, have been guilty of manifest treason or rebellion; as he most certainly can be justly charged with neither. An outlaw, in those times, being deprived of protection, owed no allegiance: “his hand was against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (14). These forests, in short, were his territories; those who accompanied and adhered to him his subjects: “The world was not his friend, nor the world’s law:” and what better title King Richard could pretend to the territory and people of England than Robin Hood had to the dominion of Barnsdale or Sherwood is a question humbly submitted to the consideration of