No. 118: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne
[There is one traditional US or Canadian found with this title in the Brown Collection (See: US and Canadian Versions). I believe it is probably another ballad.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A
5. Endnotes
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 118. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne
A. Roud No. 3977: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne (9 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: (Bronson's traditional music versions and other versions)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne
A. 'Guye of Gisborne,' Percy Manuscript, p. 262; Hales and Furnivall, II, 227.
First printed in the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 1765, I, 74, and, with less deviation from the original, in the fourth edition, 1794, I, 81. Reprinted from the Reliques in Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, I, 114.
Robin Hood has had a dream that he has been beaten and bound by two yeomen, who have taken away his bow. He vows that he will have vengeance, and sets out in search of them with Little John. Robin and John shoot as they go, till they come to the greenwood and see a yeoman leaning against a tree, clad in a horse-hide, with head, tail, and mane. John proposes to go to the yeoman to ask his intentions. Robin considers this to be forward of John, and speaks so roughly to him that John parts company, and returns to Barnsdale. Things are in a bad way there: the sheriff of Nottingham has attacked Robin's band; two have been slain; Scarlett is flying, and the sheriff in pursuit with seven score men. John sends an arrow at the pursuers, which kills one of them; but his bow breaks, and John is made prisoner and tied to a tree.
Robin learns from the man in horse-hide that he is seeking Robin Hood, but has lost his way. Robin offers to be his guide, and as they go through the wood proposes a shooting-match. Both shoot well, but Robin so much the better that the other breaks out into expressions of admiration, and asks his name. Tell me thine first, says Robin. "I am Guy of Gisborne;" "and I Robin Hood, whom thou long hast sought," They fight fiercely for two hours; Robin stumbles and is hit, but invokes the Virgin's aid, leaps up and kills Guy. He nicks Guy's face so that it cannot be recognized, throws his own green gown over the body, puts on the horse-hide, and blows Guy's horn. The sheriff hears in the sound tidings that Guy has slain Robin, and thinks it is Guy that he sees coming in the horse-hide. The supposed Guy is offered anything that he will ask, but will take no reward but the boon of serving the knave as he has the master. Robin hies to Little John, looses him, and gives him Sir Guy's bow. The sheriff takes to flight, but cannot outrun John's arrow, which cleaves his heart.
The beginning, and perhaps the development, of the story might have been more lucid but for verses lost at the very start. Robin Hood dreams of two yeomen that beat and bind him, and goes to seek them, "in greenwood where they be." Sir Guy being one, the other person pointed at must of course be the sheriff of Nottingham (who seems to be beyond his beat in Yorkshire,[1] but outlaws can raise no questions of jurisdiction), in league with Sir Guy (a Yorkshireman, who has done many a curst turn) for the capture or slaying of Robin. The dream simply foreshadows danger from two quarters. But Robin Hood is nowhere informed, as we are, that the sheriff is out against him with seven score men, has attacked his camp, and taken John prisoner. He knows nothing of this so far on as stanza 453, where, after killing Guy, he says he will go to Barnsdale to see how his men are faring. Why then does he make his arrangements in stanzas 42-452, before he returns to Barnsdale, to pass himself off for Sir Guy? Plainly this device is adopted with the knowledge that John is a prisoner, and as a means of delivering him; which all that follows shows. Our embarrassment is the greater because we cannot point out any place in the story at which the necessary information could have been conveyed; there is no cranny where it could have been thrust in. It will not be enough, therefore, to suppose that verses have dropped out; there must also have been a considerable derangement of the story.
The abrupt transition from the introductory verses, 1, 21,2, is found in Adam Bell, and the like occurs in other ballads.
A fragment of a dramatic piece founded on the ballad of Guy of Gisborne has been preserved in manuscript of the date of 1475, or earlier.[2] In this, a knight, not named, engages to take Robin Hood for the sheriff, and is promised gold and fee if he does. The knight accosts Robin, and proposes that they shoot together. They shoot, cast the stone, cast the axle-tree, perhaps wrestle (for the knight has a fall), then fight to the utterance. Robin has the mastery, cuts off the knight's head, and dons his clothes, putting the head into his hood. He hears from a man who comes along that Robin Hood and his men have been taken by the sheriff, and says, Let us go kill the sheriff. Then follows, out of the order of time, as is necessary in so brief a piece, the capture of Friar Tuck and the others by the sheriff. The variations from the Percy Manuscript story may be arbitrary, or may be those of another version of the ballad. The friar is called Tuck, as in the other play: see 'Robin Hood and the Potter'.
'Syr sheryffë, for thy sake,
Robyn Hode wull Y takë.'
' I wyll the gyffe golde and fee,
This behestë þou holdë me.'
'Robyn Hode, ffayre and fre,
Vndre this lyndë shote we.'
'With the shote Y wyll,
Alle thy lustës to full fyll.'
'Have at the prykë!'
'And Y cleuë the stykë.'
'Late vs castë the stone.'
'I grauntë well, be Seynt John.'
'Late vs castë the exaltre.'
'Have a foote be-forë the!
Syr knyght, ye haue a falle.'
'And I the, Robyn, qwytë shall.'
'Owte on the! I blowë myn hrnme.'
'Hit warë better be vnborne.'
'Lat vs fyght at ottrauncë.'
'He that fleth, God gyfe hym myschauncë!
Now I hauë the maystry herë,
Off I smytë this sory swyrë.
This knyghtys clothis wolle I werë,
And in my hode his hede woll berë.
Welle mete, felowë myn:
What herst þou of gode Robyn?'
'Robyn Hode and his menye
With the sheryff takyn be.'
'Sette on footë with gode wyll,
And the sheryffe wull we kyll.'
'Beholde wele Ffrere Tukë,
Howe he dothe his bowë plukë.
Ȝeld yow, syrs, to the sheryff[ë],
Or elles shall your bowës clyffë.'
'Nowe we be bownden alle in samë;
Frere [T]uke, þis is no gamë.'
'Co[m]e þou forth, þou fals outlawë:
Þou shall b[e] hangyde and ydrawë.'
'Now, allas! what shall we doo!
We [m]ostë to the prysone goo.'
'Opy[n] the yatis faste anon,
An[d] [d]oo theis thevys ynnë gon.'[3]
Ritson pointed out that Guy of Gisborne is named with "other worthies, it is conjectured of a similar stamp," in a satirical piece of William Dunbar, 'Of Sir Thomas Norray.'
Was never vyld Robeine wnder bewch,
Nor ȝet Roger of Clekkinsklewch,
So bauld a bairne as he;
Gy of Gysburne, na Allan Bell,
Nor Simones sonnes of Quhynfell,
At schot war nevir so slie.[4]
Ed. John Small, Part II, p. 193.
Gisburne is in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the borders of Lancashire, seven miles from Clitheroe.
He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might haue scene a full fayre sight, 361,2,
anticipates Byron:
By heaven, it is a splendid sight to see,
For one who hath no friend, no brother, there.
Childe Harold, I, 401,2.
Translated, after Percy's Reliques, by Bodmer, II, 128; La Motte Fouqué, in Büsching's Erzählungen, p. 241; Doenniges, p. 174; Anastasius Grün, p. 103; Cesare Cantù, Documenti, etc., p. 799 (the first thirty-seven stanzas).
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The beginning and perhaps the development of the story might have been more lucid but for verses lost at the very start. Robin Hood dreams of two yeomen that beat and bind him, and goes to seek them, "in green-wood where they be." Sir Guy being one, the other person pointed at must of course be the sheriff of Nottingham, in league with Sir Guy (a Yorkshireman, who has done many a curst turn) for the capture or slaying of Robin. The dream simply foreshadows danger from two quarters. But Robin Hood is nowhere informed, as we are, that the sheriff is out against him with seven score men, has attacked his camp, and taken John prisoner. He knows nothing of this so far on as stanza 453, where, after killing Guy, he says he will go to Barnsdale to see how his men are faring. Why then does he make his arrangements in stanzas 42-452, before he returns to Barnsdale, to pass himself off for Sir Guy? Plainly this device is adopted with the knowledge that John is a prisoner, and as a means of delivering him; which all that follows shows. Our embarrassment is the greater because we cannot point out any place in the story at which the necessary information could have been conveyed. It will not be enough, therefore, to suppose that verses have been dropped out; there must also have been a considerable derangement of the story. The abrupt transition from the introductory verses is found in 'Adam Bell' (No. 116), and the like occurs in other ballads. A fragment of a dramatic piece founded on the ballad of 'Guy of Gisborne' has been preserved in a manuscript of the date of 1475 or earlier.
Child's Ballad Text
'Guye of Gisborne'- Version A; Child 118 Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
'Guye of Gisborne,' Percy Manuscript, p. 262; Hales and Furnivall, II, 227.
1 When shawes beene sheene, and shradds full fayre,
And leeues both large and longe,
Itt is merrry, walking in the fayre forrest,
To heare the small birds songe.
2 The woodweele sang, and wold not cease,
Amongst the leaues a lyne:
And it is by two wight yeomen,
By deare God, that I meane.
* * * * *
3 'Me thought they did mee beate and binde,
And tooke my bow mee froe;
If I bee Robin a-liue in this lande,
I'le be wrocken on both them towe.'
4 'Sweauens are swift, master,' quoth Iohn,
'As the wind that blowes ore a hill;
Ffor if itt be neuer soe lowde this night,
To-morrow it may be still.'
5 'Buske yee, bowne yee, my merry men all,
Ffor Iohn shall goe with mee;
For I'le goe seeke yond wight yeomen
In greenwood where the bee.'
6 Th cast on their gowne of greene,
A shooting gone are they,
Vntill they came to the merry greenwood,
Where they had gladdest bee;
There were the ware of [a] wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree.
7 A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Had beene many a mans bane,
And he was cladd in his capull-hyde,
Topp, and tayle, and mayne.
8 'Stand you still, master,' quoth Litle Iohn,
'Vnder this trusty tree,
And I will goe to yond wight yeoman,
To know his meaning trulye.'
9 'A Iohn, by me thou setts noe store,
And that's a farley thinge;
How offt send I my men beffore,
And tarry my-selfe behinde?
10 'It is noe cunning a knaue to ken,
And a man but heare him speake;
And itt were not for bursting of my bowe,
Iohn, I wolde thy head breake.'
11 But often words they breeden bale,
That parted Robin and Iohn;
Iohn is gone to Barn[e]sdale,
The gates he knowes eche one.
12 And when hee came to Barnesdale,
Great heauinesse there hee hadd;
He found two of his fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade.
13 And Scarlett a foote flyinge was,
Ouer stockes and stone,
For the sheriffe with seuen score men
Fast after him is gone.
14 'Yett one shoote I'le shoote,' sayes Litle Iohn,
'With Crist his might and mayne;
I'le make yond fellow that flyes so fast
To be both glad and faine.
15 Iohn bent vp a good veiwe bow,
And fetteled him to shoote;
The bow was made of a tender boughe,
And fell downe to his foote.
16 'Woe worth thee, wicked wood,' sayd Litle Iohn,
'That ere thou grew on a tree!
Ffor this day thou art my bale,
My boote when thou shold bee!'
17 This shoote it was but loosely shott,
The arrowe flew in vaine,
And it mett one of tne sheriffes men;
Good William a Trent was slaine.
18 It had beene better for William a Trent
To hange vpon a gallowe
Then for to lye in the greenwoode,
There slaine with an arrowe.
19 And it is sayd, when men be mett,
Six can doe more then three:
And they haue tane Litle Iohn,
And bound him fast to a tree.
20 'Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe,' quoth the sheriffe,
'And hanged hye on a hill:'
'But thou may fayle,' quoth Litle Iohn,
'If itt be Christs owne will.'
21 Let vs leaue talking of Litle Iohn,
For hee is bound fast to a tree,
And talke of Guy and Robin Hood,
In the green woode where they bee.
22 How these two yeomen together they mett,
Vnder the leaues of lyne,
To see what marchandise they made
Euen at that same time.
23 'Good morrow, good fellow,' quoth Sir Guy;
'Good morrow, good fellow,' quoth hee;
'Methinkes by this bow thou beares in thy hand,
A good archer thou seems to bee.'
24 'I am wilfull of my way,' quoth Sir Guye,
'And of my morning tyde:'
'I'le lead thee through the wood,' quoth Robin,
'Good fellow, I'le be thy guide.'
25 'I seeke an outlaw,' quoth Sir Guye,
'Men call him Robin Hood;
I had rather meet with him vpon a day
Then forty pound of golde.'
26 'If you tow mett, itt wold be seene whether were better
Afore yee did part awaye;
Let vs some other pastime find,
Good fellow, I thee pray.
27 Let vs some other masteryes make,
And wee will walke in the woods euen;
Wee may chance mee[t] with Robin Hoode
Att some vnsett steven.'
28 They cutt them downe the summer shroggs
Which grew both vnder a bryar,
And sett them three score rood on twinn,
To shoote the prickes full neare.
29 'Leade on, good fellow,' sayd Sir Guye,
'Lead on, I doe bidd thee:'
'Nay, by my faith,' quoth Robin Hood,
'The leader thou shalt bee.'
30 The first good shoot that Robin ledd
Did not shoote an inch the pricke froe;
Guy was an archer good enoughe,
But he cold neere shoote soe.
31 The second shoote Sir Guy shott,
He shott within the garlande;
But Robin Hoode shott it better then hee,
For he cloue the good pricke-wande.
32 'Gods blessing on thy heart!' sayes Guye,
'Goode fellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better then Robin Hood.
33 'Tell me thy name, good fellow,' quoth Guy,
'vnder the leaues of lyne:'
'Nay, by my faith,' quoth good Robin,
'Till thou haue told me thine.'
34 'I dwell by dale and downe,' quoth Guye,
'And I haue done many a curst turne;
And he that calles me by my right name
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne.'
35 'My dwelling is in the wood,' sayes Robin;
'By thee I set right nought;
My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
A fellow thou has long sought.'
36 He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might haue seene a full fayre sight,
To see how together these yeomen went,
With blades both browne and bright.
37 To haue seene how these yeomen together foug[ht],
Two howers of a summers day;
Itt was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
That fettled them to flye away.
38 Robin was reacheles on a roote,
And stumbled at that tyde,
And Guy was quicke and nimble with-all,
And hitt him ore the left side.
39 'Ah, deere Lady!' sayd Robin Hoode,
'Thou art both mother and may!
I thinke it was neuer mans destinye
To dye before his day.'
40 Robin thought on Our Lady deere,
And soone leapt vp againe,
And thus he came with an awkwarde stroke;
Good Sir Guy hee has slayne.
41 He tooke Sir Guys head by the hayre,
And sticked itt on his bowes end;
'Thou hast beene traytor all thy liffe,
Which thing must haue an ende.'
42 Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe,
And nicked Sir Guy in the face,
That hee was neuer on a woman borne
Cold tell who Sir Guy was.
43 Saies, Lye there, lye there, good Sir Guye,
And with me be not wrothe;
If thou haue had the worse stroakes at my hand,
Thou shalt haue the better cloathe.
44 Robin did off his gowne of greene,
Sir Guye hee did it throwe;
And hee put on that capull-hyde,
That cladd him topp to toe.
45 'The bowe, the arrowes, and litle horne,
And with me now I'le beare;
Ffor now I will goe to Barn[e]sdale,
To see how my men doe fare.'
46 Robin sett Guyes horne to his mouth,
A lowd blast in it he did blow;
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned vnder a lowe.
47 'Hearken! hearken!' sayd the sheriffe,
'I heard noe tydings but good;
For yonder I heare Sir Guyes horne blowe,
For he hath slaine Robin Hoode.
48 'For yonder I heare Sir Guyes horne blow,
Itt blowes soe well in tyde,
For yonder comes that wighty yeoman,
Cladd in his capull-hyde.
49 'Come hither, thou good Sir Guy,
Aske of mee what thou wilt haue:'
'I'le none of thy gold,' sayes Robin Hood,
'Nor I'le none of itt haue.
50 'But now I haue slaine the master,' he sayd,
'Let me goe strike the knaue;
This is all the reward I aske,
Nor noe other will I haue.'
51 'Thou art a madman,' said the shiriffe,
'Thou sholdest haue had a knights fee;
Seeing thy asking [hath] beene soe badd,
Well granted it shall be.'
52 But Litle Iohn heard his master speake,
Well he knew that was his steuen;
'Now shall I be loset,' quoth Litle Iohn,
'With Christs might in heauen.'
53 Robin hee hyed him towards Litle Iohn,
Hee thought hee wold loose him beliue;
The sheriffe and all his companye
Fast after him did driue.
54 'Stand abacke! stand abacke!' sayd Robin;
'Why draw you mee soe neere?
Itt was neuer the vse in our countrye
One's shrift another shold heere.'
55 But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed Iohn hand and foote,
And gaue him Sir Guyes bow in his hand,
And bade it be his boote.
56 But Iohn tooke Guyes bow in his hand —
His arrowes were rawstye by the roote —;
The sherriffe saw Litle Iohn draw a bow
And fettle him to shoote.
57 Towards his house in Nottingam
He fled full fast away,
And soe did all his companye,
Not one behind did stay.
58 But he cold neither soe fast goe,
Nor away soe fast runn,
But Litle Iohn, with an arrow broade,
Did cleaue his heart in twinn.
End-Notes
11. When shales beeene.
14. birds singe.
21. woodweete.
23. by 2.
111. ball.
123. 2 of.
133. with 7.
151. veiwe. The word is partly pared away.
154. footee.
181. a william.
192. 6 can ... 3.
214. in they green.
221. these 2.
234. archer: an e has been added at the end. Furnivall.
254. 40li.
274. a stroke before the v of steven. Furnivall.
283. 3 score.
311. 2d.
323. for on.
372. 2 howers.
441. did on.
551. kniffee.