No. 123: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
[Child leaves off the last part of the play found in his Appendix below-- saying, "After ten lines of ribaldry, which have no pertinency to the traditional Robin Hood and Friar, the play abruptly passes to the adventure of Robin Hood and the Potter."
Robyn hode
and also here is a Lady free
I wyll geue her vnto the
And her chapplayn I the make
To ferue her for my fake
Fryer
Here is an huckle duckle,
An inch aboue y buckle.
She is a trul of trust,
To serve a frier at his lust,
A prycker, a prauncer, a terer of shetes,
A wagger of ballocks when other men slepes.
Go home, ye knaves, and lay crabbes in the fyre,
For my lady and I will daunce in the myre,
For veri pure joye.
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnote (Added at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A and Ba-f. (Changes to make texts B b-f are found in End-Notes)
5. Endnotes
6. Appendix (The Play of Robin Hood)
7. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 123. Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
A. Roud 1621: Robin Hood & Curtal Friar (14 listings)
2. Sheet Music: (Bronson's traditional music versions and other versions)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A and Ba-f. with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
A. 'Robine Hood and Ffryer Tucke,' Percy Manuscript, p. 10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
B. 'The Famous Battel between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer.'
a. Garland of 1663, No 11.
b. Pepys, I, 78, No 37.[1]
c. Garland of 1670.
d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b.
e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86.
f. Douce, II, 184.
B also in the Roxburghe collection, III, 16.
B d was printed in Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 58, corrected by b and compared with e; and in Evans's Old Ballads, 1777-1784, I, 136, probably from the Aldermary garland.
The opening verses of A are of the same description as those with which Nos 117, 118, 119, and others begin. 1 has been corrupted, and 2 also, one would think, as there is no apparent reason for maids weeping and young men wringing hands in the merry month of May. In the first stanza,
But how many merry monthes be in the yeere?
There are 13 in May;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
month, in the first and the fourth line might be changed to moon, to justify thirteen in the second, and to accord with moon in the third. For in May, in the second line, we may read, I say, or many say. The first stanza of No 140, B, runs:
There are twelve months in all the year,
As I hear many say;
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.
Nearly, or quite, one half of A has been torn from the manuscript, but there is no reason to suppose that the story differed much from that of B.
Upon Little John's killing a hart at five hundred foot, Robin Hood exclaims that he would ride a hundred mile to find John's match. Scadlock, with a laugh, says that there is a friar at Fountains Abbey who will beat both John and Robin, or indeed Robin and all his yeomen. Robin Hood takes an oath never to eat or drink till he has seen that friar. (Cf. No 30, I, 275, 279.) Robin goes to Fountains Abbey, and ensconces his men in a fern-brake. He finds the friar walking by the water, well armed, and begs [orders, B] the friar to carry him over.[2] The friar takes Robin on his back, and says no word till he is over; then draws his sword and bids Robin carry him back, or he shall rue it. Robin takes the friar on his back, and says no word till he is over; then bids the friar carry him over once more. The friar, without a word, takes Robin on his back, and when he comes to the middle of the stream throws him in. When both have swum to the shore, Robin lets an arrow fly, which the friar puts by with his buckler. The friar cares not for his arrows, though Robin shoots till his arrows are all gone. They take to swords, and fight with them for six good hours, when Robin begs the boon of blowing three blasts on his horn. The friar gives him leave to blow his eyes out: fifty bowmen come raking over the lea. The friar in turn asks a boon, to whistle thrice in his fist. Robin cares not how much he whistles: fifty good bandogs come raking in a row. Here there is a divergence. According to A, the friar will match every man with a dog, and himself with Robin. God forbid, says Robin; better be matched with three of the dogs than with thee. Stay thy tikes, and let us be friends. In B, two dogs go at Robin and tear his mantle from his back; all the arrows shot at them the dogs catch in their mouths. Little John calls to the friar to call off his dogs, and enforces his words by laying half a score of them dead on the plain with his bow. The friar cries, Hold; he will make terms. Robin Hood offers the friar clothes and fee to forsake Fountains Abbey for the green-wood. We must infer, as in the parallel case of the Pinder of Wakefield, that the offer is accepted.[3] But the Curtal Friar, like the Pinder again, plays no part in Robin Hood story out of his own ballad.
Robin Hood and the Friar, in both versions, is in a genuinely popular strain, and was made to sing, not to print. Verbal agreements show that A and B have an earlier ballad as their common source; but of this, one or the other has retained but little. I cannot think that B 33, 34 are of the original matter. It is a derogation from Robin Hood's prowess that he should have his mantle torn from his back, and we may ask why the dogs do not catch Little John's arrows as well as others.
Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was a Cistercian monastery, dating from the twelfth century. (It is loosely called a nunnery in A 4.) The friar is called "cutted" in A and "curtal" in B, and these words have been held to mean short-frocked, and therefore to make the friar a Franciscan. Staveley, The Romish Horseleech, speaking of the Franciscans, says at p. 214, Experience shews that in some countrys, where friers used to wear short habits, the order was presently contemned and derided, and men called them curtaild friers. Cited by Douce, Illustrations of Shakspere, I, 61. So, according to Douce, we may probably understand the curtal friar to be a curtailed friar, and in like manner of the curtal dogs. "Cutted" in A can signify nothing but short-frocked. In the title of that version, though not in the text, the friar is called Tuck, which means that he is "ytukked hye," like Chaucer's Friar John, but not that he wears a short frock. The friar in the play (see below) has a "long cote," v. 46. But I apprehend that B has the older word in curtal, and that curtal is simply curtilarius, and applied to both friar and dogs because they had the care and keeping of the curtile, or vegetable garden, of the monastery.[4]
The title of A in the Manuscript is Robin Hood and Friar Tuck; from which it follows that the copyist, or some predecessor, considered the stalwart friar of Fountains Abbey to be one with the jocular friar of the May-games and the morris dance. But Friar Tuck, the wanton and the merry, like Maid Marian, owes his association with Robin Hood primarily to these popular sports, and not in the least to popular ballads. In the truly popular ballads Friar Tuck is never heard of, and in only two even of the broadsides, Robin Hood and Queen Katherine and Robin Hood's Golden Prize, is he so much as named; in both no more than named, and in both in conjunction with Maid Marian.
'The Play of Robin Hood,' the first half of which is based on the present ballad, calls the friar, Friar Tuck, and represents him accordingly. See the Appendix. He is also called Tuck in the play founded on Guy of Gisborne.
In Munday's Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington, Friar Tuck is by implication identified with the friar who fell into the well, Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, VIII, 185; and Mr. Chappell is consequently led to say, at p. 390 of his 'Popular Music,' that the ballad of the Friar in the Well was in all probability a tale of "Robin Hood's fat friar." Cavilling at this phrase of Shakspere's only so far as to observe that the friar of the traditional Robin Hood ballad is as little fat as wanton, I need but say that the truth of the case had been already accurately expressed by Mr. Chappell at p. 274 of his invaluable work: "the story is a very old one, and one of the many against monks and friars in which not only England, but all Europe, delighted."
The boon to blow three blasts on his horn, B 25, is also asked by Robin of the Shepherd, No 135, st. 15. The reply made by the Shepherd, st. 16, is, If thou shouldst blow till tomorrow morn, I scorn one foot to flee. In R. H. Rescuing Three Squires, B 25, when Robin, disguised as a beggar, intimates to the sheriff that he may blow his horn, the answer is nearly the same as here: Blow till both thy eyes fall out. In No 127, st. 34 f, Robin asks a boon of the Tinker, without specifying what the boon is; the Tinker refuses; Robin blows his horn while the Tinker is not looking. In No 135, st. 16 f, Robin asks the three keepers to let him blow one blast on his horn, and they refuse. This boon of [three] blasts on a horn is not an important matter in these Robin Hood ballads, but it may be noticed as a feature of other popular ballads in which an actor is reduced to extremity: as in the Swedish ballad Stolts Signild, Arwidsson, II, 128, No 97, and the corresponding Signild og hendes Broder, Danske Viser, IV, 31, No 170, in both of which the answer to the request is, Blow as much as you will. So in a Russian bylina, when Solomon is to be hanged, he obtains permission three several times to blow his horn, and is told to blow as much as he will, and upon the third blast his army comes to the rescue: Rybnikof, II, No 52, Jagić, in Archiv für slavische Philologie, I, 104 ff; Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of Russia, p. 287 f; also F. Vogt, Salman und Morolf, p. 104, sts 494 ff.[5] Three cries take the place of three blasts, upon occasion: as in the case of the unhappy maid in the German forms of No 4, I, 32 ff, where also the maid is sometimes told to cry as much as she wants, and in Gesta Romanorum, Oesterley, cap. 108, p. 440.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 124.
Footnotes:
1. b would have taken precedence of a, having heen printed earlier (1607-41), but I am at liberty only to collate Pepys copies. The Wood copies of Robin Hood ballads are generally preferable to the Pepys.
2. "A wet weary man," A 71, should probably be "wel weary." Why should R. H. be wet? And if wet, he may as well be a little wetter.
3. Like terms are assured the cook by John in the Gest, sts 170, 171, and offered the Tanner by Robin Hood, R. H. and the Tanner, st. 26. Cf. Adam Bell, sts 163-65.
The 'Life' in the Sloane Manuscript, which is put not much before 1600, says: He procurd the Pynner of Wakefeyld to become one of his company, and a freyr called Muchel; though some say he was an other kynd of religious man, for that the order of freyrs was not yet sprung up.
4. Curtilarius (Old English curtiler) qui curtile curat aut incolit: Ducange.
5. I suppose that it must already have been pointed out that the story of King Bamiro, versified hy Southey from the Portuguese, Poetical Works, 1838, VI, 122, is a variety of that of Solomon. There are curious points of resemblance between 'R. H. rescuing Three Squires' and the conclusion of the story of Solomon.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
'Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar,' in both versions, is in a genuinely popular strain, and was made to sing, not to print. Verbal agreements show that A and B have an earlier ballad as their common source. Nearly, or quite, one half of A has been torn from the manuscript, but there is no reason to suppose the story differed much from that of B. The title of A in the manuscript is 'Robin Hood and Friar Tuck;' from which it follows that the copyist, or some predecessor, considered the stalwart friar of Fountains Abbey to be one with the jocular friar of the May-games and the morrisdance. But Friar Tuck, the wanton and the merry, like Maid Marian, owes his association with Robin Hood primarily to these popular sports, and not in the least to popular ballads. In the truly popular ballads Friar Tuck is never heard of, and in only two even of the broadside ballads (Nos. 145, 147) is he so much as named, and in both in conjunction with Maid Marian. The Play of Robin Hood (see p. 289, above), the first half of which is based on the present ballad, calls the friar Friar Tuck. So also the play founded on No, 118.
Child's Ballad Texts
'Robine Hood and Ffryer Tucke'- Version A; Child 123 Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
Percy Manuscript, p. 10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
1 But how many merry monthes be in the yeere?
There are thirteen, I say;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
2 In May, when mayds beene fast weepand,
Young men their hands done wringe,
* * * * *
3 'I'le pe . . .
Over may noe man for villanie:'
'I'le never eate nor drinke,' Robin Hood sa[id],
'Till I that cutted friar see.'
4 He builded his men in a brake of fearne,
A litle from that nunery;
Sayes, If you heare my litle horne blow,
Then looke you come to me.
5 When Robin came to Fontaines Abey,
Wheras that fryer lay,
He was ware of the fryer where he stood,
And to him thus can he say.
6 A payre of blacke breeches the yeoman had on,
His coppe all shone of steele,
A fayre sword and a broad buckeler
Beseemed him very weell.
7 'I am a wet weary man,' said Robin Hood,
'Good fellow, as thou may see;
Wilt beare [me] over this wild water,
Ffor sweete Saint Charity?'
8 The fryer bethought him of a good deed;
He had done none of long before;
He hent up Robin Hood on his backe,
And over he did him beare.
9 But when he came over that wild water,
A longe sword there he drew:
'Beare me backe againe, bold outlawe,
Or of this thou shalt have enoughe.'
10 Then Robin Hood hent the fryar on his back,
And neither sayd good nor ill;
Till he came ore that wild water,
The yeoman he walked still.
11 Then Robin Hood wett his fayre greene hoze,
A span aboue his knee;
S[ay]s, Beare me ore againe, thou cutted f[ryer]
* * * * *
12 . . . .
. . . .
. . . good bowmen
[C]ame raking all on a rowe.
13 'I beshrew thy head,' said the cutted friar,
'Thou thinkes I shall be shente;
I thought thou had but a man or two,
And thou hast [a] whole conuent.
14 'I lett thee haue a blast on thy horne,
Now giue me leaue to whistle another;
I cold not bidd thee noe better play
And thou wert my owne borne brother.'
15 'Now fute on, fute on, thou cutted fryar,
I pray God thou neere be still;
It is not the futing in a fryers fist
That can doe me any ill.'
16 The fryar sett his neave to his mouth,
A loud blast he did blow;
Then halfe a hundred good bandoggs
Came raking all on a rowe.
17 . . . .
. . . .
'Euery dogg to a man,' said the cutted fryar,
'And I my selfe to Robin Hood.'
18 'Over God's forbott,' said Robin Hood,
'That euer that soe shold bee;
I had rather be mached with three of the tikes
Ere I wold be matched on thee.
19 'But stay thy tikes, thou fryar,' he said,
'And freindshipp I'le haue with thee;
But stay thy tikes, thou fryar,' he said,
'And saue good yeomanry.'
20 The fryar he sett his neave to his mouth,
A lowd blast he did blow;
The doggs the coucht downe eiery one,
They couched downe on a rowe.
21 'What is thy will, thou yeoman?' he said,
'Haue done and tell it me;'
'If that thou will goe to merry greenwood,
* * * * *
-----------
'The Famous Battel between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer'- Version B a.; Child 123 Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
a. Garland of 1663, No 11.
b. Pepys, I, 78, No 37.
c. Garland of 1670, No 10.
d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b.
e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86.
f. Douce, II, 184.
1 In summer time, when leaves grow green,
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men
Were disposed to play.
2 Then some would leap, and some would run,
And some would use artillery:
'Which of you can a good bow draw,
A good archer to be?
3 'Which of you can kill a buck?
Or who can kill a do?
Or who can kill a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro?'
4 Will Scadlock he killd a buck,
And midge he killd a do,
And Little John killd a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro.
5 'God's blessing on thy heart,' said Robin Hood,
'That hath [shot] such a shot for me;
I would ride my horse an hundred miles,
To finde one could match with thee.'
6 That causd Will Scadlock to laugh,
He laughed full heartily:
'There lives a curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Will beat both him and thee.
7 'That curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Well can a strong bow draw;
He will beat you and your yeomen,
Set them all on a row.'
8 Robin Hood took a solemn oath,
It was by Mary free,
That he would neither eat nor drink
Till the frier he did see.
9 Robin Hood put on his harness good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
10 He took his bow into his hand,
It was made of a trusty tree,
With a sheaf of arrows at his belt,
To the Fountains Dale went he.
11 And comming unto Fountain[s] Dale,
No further would he ride;
There was he aware of a curtal frier,
Walking by the water-side.
12 The fryer had on a harniss good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
13 Robin Hood lighted off his horse,
And tied him to a thorn:
'Carry me over the water, thou curtal frier,
Or else thy life's forlorn.'
14 The frier took Robin Hood on his back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
15 Lightly leapt Robin Hood off the friers back;
The frier said to him again,
Carry me over this water, fine fellow,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
16 Robin Hood took the frier on's back,
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
17 Lightly leapt the fryer off Robin Hoods back;
Robin Hood said to him again,
Carry me over this water, thou curtal frier,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
18 The frier took Robin Hood on's back again,
And stept up to the knee;
Till he came at the middle stream,
Neither good nor bad spake he.
19 And coming to the middle stream,
There he threw Robin in:
'And chuse thee, chuse thee, fine fellow,
Whether thou wilt sink or swim.'
20 Robin Hood swam to a bush of broom,
The frier to a wicker wand;
Bold Robin Hood is gone to shore,
And took his bow in hand.
21 One of his best arrows under his belt
To the frier he let flye;
The curtal frier, with his steel buckler,
He put that arrow by.
22 'Shoot on, shoot on, thou fine fellow,
Shoot on as thou hast begun;
If thou shoot here a summers day,
Thy mark I will not shun.'
23 Robin Hood shot passing well,
Till his arrows all were gone;
They took their swords and steel bucklers,
And fought with might and maine;
24 From ten oth' clock that day,
Till four ith' afternoon;
Then Robin Hood came to his knees,
Of the frier to beg a boon.
25 'A boon, a boon, thou curtal frier,
I beg it on my knee;
Give me leave to set my horn to my mouth,
And to blow blasts three.'
26 'That will I do,' said the curtal frier,
'Of thy blasts I have no doubt;
I hope thou'lt blow so passing well
Till both thy eyes fall out.'
27 Robin Hood set his horn to his mouth,
He blew but blasts three;
Half a hundred yeomen, with bows bent,
Came raking over the lee.
28 'Whose men are these,' said the frier,
'That come so hastily?'
'These men are mine,' said Robin Hood;
'Frier, what is that to thee?'
29 'A boon, a boon,' said the curtal frier,
'The like I gave to thee;
Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth,
And to whute whutes three.'
30 'That will I do,' said Robin Hood,
'Or else I were to blame;
Three whutes in a friers fist
Would make me glad and fain.'
31 The frier he set his fist to his mouth,
And whuted whutes three;
Half a hundred good ban-dogs
Came running the frier unto.
32 'Here's for every man of thine a dog,
And I my self for thee:'
'Nay, by my faith,' quoth Robin Hood,
'Frier, that may not be.'
33 Two dogs at once to Robin Hood did go,
The one behind, the other before;
Robin Hoods mantle of Lincoln green
Off from his back they tore.
34 And whether his men shot east or west,
Or they shot north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were,
They kept their arrows in their mouth.
35 'Take up thy dogs,' said Little John,
'Frier, at my bidding be;'
'Whose man art thou,' said the curtal frier,
'Comes here to prate with me?'
36 'I am Little John, Robin Hoods man,
Frier, I will not lie;
If thou take not up thy dogs soon,
I'le take up them and thee.'
37 Little John had a bow in his hand,
He shot with might and main;
Soon half a score of the friers dogs
Lay dead upon the plain.
38 'Hold thy hand, good fellow,' said the curtal frier,
'Thy master and I will agree;
And we will have new orders taken,
With all the haste that may be.'
39 'If thou wilt forsake fair Fountains Dale,
And Fountains Abby free,
Every Sunday throughout the year,
A noble shall be thy fee.
40 'And every holy day throughout the year,
Changed shall thy garment be,
If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham,
And there remain with me.'
41 This curtal frier had kept Fountains Dale
Seven long years or more;
There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.
End-Notes
A. Half a page is gone after 22, 113, 213.
11. moones?
12. 13 in May.
14. month may pass, though moone is expected.
21,2. might perhaps be intelligible with the other half of the stanza.
104, 203. They.
111. eze.
134. courtent? comment? F.
151. Now fate.
163. 100d.
173,4. bis {
181. Ever.
183. 3.
B. a. The famous battel between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer, near Fountain Dale.
To a new northern tune.
41, 61. Sadlock: Scadlock elsewhere.
151. stept. Cf. 171: leapt in b, e.
194. sing.
243. his wanting, and in all but b, e.
244. the wanting, and in all but b, e.
274. ranking: in d, e, f, ranging.
321. of thine wanting: found only in b.
344. catcht: kept in b, d.
353. thon.
b. Title as in a, omitting near Fountain Dale.
Printed at London for H. Gosson. (1607-41.)
24. for to.
34, 44, 53, 273, 313. hundreth.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
73. and all.
74. all a on a.
81. Hood he.
92, 122. And wanting.
104. Fountaine.
111. into.
112. he would.
113. he was: of the.
121. a wanting.
144, 164. th' other.
151. leapt for stept.
161. on his.
181. Hood wanting.
182. in for up.
202. wigger.
204. in his.
221. Scot: a misprint.
232. gane.
234. They for And.
241. of clock of that.
242. four of th'.
243. to his.
244. of the.
254. But to.
261. I will.
274. raking.
282. comes.
294, 303, 312. whues, unobjectionable: in all the rest whutes.
311. he set.
313. of good band-dogs.
321. man of thine.
323. said for quoth.
344. kept the.
384. that wanting.
401. through the.
412. and more.
c. Title as in a, except Dales.
52. hath wanting.
63, 71. Fountain.
84. he the frier did.
151. stept.
201. sworn.
231. shot so.
283. men wanting.
313. band-dogs.
344. catcht.
354. to me.
402. garments.
d. Title as in b.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson. (1640-80?)
53. a.
54. with wanting.
74. all in.
111. Fountains.
112. farther.
151. stept.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
231. shot so.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
311. he wanting.
321. of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. They kept.
393. through the.
402. garments.
e. Title as in b.
Printed for W. Thackeray, J. Millet, and A. Milbourn. (1680-97?)
24. for wanting.
34, 44. hundreth.
52. That shot such a shoot.
53. a for an.
54. with wanting.
63. Fountain.
7, 8. wanting.
102. made wanting.
111. Fountain's.
112. farther.
113. he was.
121. on wanting.
151. leapt for stept.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
163. speak.
173. over the.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. were all gane.
234. They for And.
243. to his.
244. Of the.
261. I will.
272. blew out.
274. ranging.
313. bay dogs.
321. Here is.
343. The cutrtles.
344. caught the.
381. Hold thy hand, hold thy hand, said.
391,2, 411. Fountain.
401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and for or.
f. Title as in b.
London, printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. (1655-80.)
22. some wanting.
52. shot such a shoot.
53. a.
54. with wanting.
111. Fountains.
112. farther.
113. ware.
151. step'd.
153. thou fine.
161. on his.
202. wigger.
203. to the.
213, 343. curtle.
222. on wanting.
231. shot so.
232. Till all his arrows were.
234. They for And.
243. his wanting.
244. the wanting.
274. ranging.
283. men wanting.
303. fryer.
311. he wanting.
313. bay-dogs.
321. Here is: of thine wanting.
332. and the other.
344. caught the.
392, 411. Fountain.
393, 401. through the.
402. garments.
412. and more.
Appendix: Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
The Play of Robin Hood
(1-110)
a. Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 192, as printed by William Copland, at the end of his edition of the Gest.
b. As printed by Edward White, at the end of his edition of the Gest: Bodleian Library, Z. 3. Art. Seld.
Robyn Hode
Now stand ye forth, my mery men all,
And harke what I shall say;
Of an adventure I shal you tell,
The which befell this other day.
As I went by the hygh way, 5
With a stout frere I met,
And a quarter-staffe in his hande.
Lyghtely to me he lept,
And styll he bade me stande.
There were strypes two or three, 10
But I cannot tell who had the worse,
But well I wote the horeson lept within me,
And fro me he toke my purse.
Is there any of my mery men all
That to that frere wyll go, 15
And bryng hym to me forth withall,
Whether he wyll or no?
Lytell John
Yes, mayster, I make God avowe, 20
To that frere wyll I go,
And bring him to you,
Whether he wyl or no.
Fryer Tucke
Deus hic! deus hic! God be here, 25
Is not this a holy worde for a frere?
God save all this company!
But am not I a jolly fryer?
For I can shote both farre and nere, 30
And handle the sworde and buckler,
And this quarter-staffe also.
If I mete with a gentylman or yeman,
I am not afrayde to loke hym upon,
Nor boldly with him to carpe; 35
If he speake any wordes to me,
He shall have strypes two or thre,
That shal make his body smarte.
But, maisters, to shew you the matter
Wherfore and why I am come hither,
In fayth I wyll not spare.
I am come to seke a good yeman,
In Bernisdale men sai is his habitacion,
His name is Robyn Hode.
And if that he be better man than I,
His servaunt wyll I be, and serve him truely;
But if that I be better man than he,
By my truth my knave shall he be,
And leade dogges all three.
Robyn Hode
Yelde the, fryer, in thy long cote.
Fryer Tucke
I beshrew thy hart, knave, thou hurtest my throt[e].
Robyn Hode
I trowe, fryer, thou beginnest to dote;
Who made the so malapert and so bolde
To come into this forest here,
Amonge my falowe dere?
Fryer
Go louse the, ragged knave.
If thou make mani wordes, I will geve the on the eare,
Though I be but a poore fryer.
To seke Robyn Hode I am com here,
And to him my hart to breke.
Robyn Hode
Thou lousy frer, what wouldest thou with hym?
He never loved fryer, nor none of freiers kyn.
Fryer
Avaunt, ye ragged knave!
Or ye shall have on the skynne.
Robyn Hode
Of all the men in the morning thou art the worst,
To mete with the I have no lust;
For he that meteth a frere or a fox in the morning,
To spede ill that day he standeth in jeoperdy.
Therfore I had lever mete with the devil of hell,
(Fryer, I tell the as I thinke,)
Then mete with a fryer or a fox
In a mornyng, or I drynk.
Fryer
Avaunt, thou ragged knave! this is but a mock; 70
If thou make mani words thou shal have a knock.
Robyn Hode
Harke, frere, what I say here:
Over this water thou shalt me here,
The brydge is borne away.
Fryer
To say naye I wyll not; 75
To let the of thine oth it were great pitie and sin;
But up on a fryers backe, and have even in!
Robyn Hode
Nay, have over.
Fryer
Now am I, frere, within, and thou, Robin, without, 80
To lay the here I have no great doubt.
Now art thou, Robyn, without, and I, frere, within,
Lye ther, knave; chose whether thou wilte sinke or swym.
Fryer
Mary, set a knave over the shone.
Robyn Hode
Therfore thou shalt abye.
Fryer
Why, wylt thou fyght a plucke? 85
Robyn Hode
And God send me good lucke.
Fryer
Than have a stroke for fryer Tucke.
Robyn Hode
Holde thy hande, frere, and here me speke.
Fryer
Say on, ragged knave,
Me semeth ye begyn to swete. 90
Robyn Hode
In this forest I have a hounde,
I wyl not give him for an hundreth pound.
Geve me leve my home to blowe,
That my hounde may knowe.
Fryer
Blowe on, ragged knave, without any doubte, 95
Untyll bothe thyne eyes starte out.
Here be a sorte of ragged knaves come in,
Clothed all in Kendale grene,
And to the they take their way nowe.
Robyn Hode
Peradventure they do so. 100
Fryer
I gave the leve to blowe at thy wyll,
Now give me leve to whistell my fyll.
Robyn Hode
Whystell, frere, evyl mote thou fare!
Untyll bothe thyne eyes stare.
Fryer
Now Cut and Bause! 105
Breng forth the clubbes and staves,
And down with those ragged knaves!
Robyn Hode
How sayest thou, frere, wylt thou be my man,
To do me the best servyse thou can?
Thou shalt have both golde and fee. 110
and also here is a Lady free
I wyll geue her vnto the
And her chapplayn I the make
To ferue her for my fake
Fryer
Here is an huckle duckle,
An inch aboue y buckle.
She is a trul of trust,
To serve a frier at his lust,
A prycker, a prauncer, a terer of shetes,
A wagger of ballocks when other men slepes.
Go home, ye knaves, and lay crabbes in the fyre,
For my lady and I will daunce in the myre,
For veri pure joye.
After ten lines of ribaldry, which have no pertinency to the traditional Robin Hood and Friar, the play abruptly passes to the adventure of Robin Hood and the Potter. [I've added the missing text above in blue.]
End-Notes
a. Ritson has been followed, without collation with Copland.
35. maister.
64. spede ell.
70. you, you for thou, thou.
82. donee.
104. starte.
b. 13. he wanting.
15. to the.
23. word of.
31. Not.
35. maister.
41. if he.
43. be a.
59. ye wanting.
61. in a.
65. had rather: of hell wanting.
70. ye: ye shalt.
81. choose either sinke.
97. Here is.
103. might thou.
104. stare.
Additions and Corrections
P. 128 a, v. 80. The reading should be
Now am I, frere, without, and thou, Robyn, within:
otherwise there is no change in their relative plight.
To be Corrected in the Print.
122 b, 6th line. Read No 135.