No. 139: Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham
[There is one known traditional US or Canadian version of this ballad. See US & Canada Versions.
In his notes to Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham, Stephen Knight (Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales 1997) comments:
This ballad appears in several seventeenth-century broadsides and the early garlands, and is the first to appear in the Forresters manuscript, under the title Robin Hood and the Forresters: that text seems a retelling, with some literary effect, of the Wood text preferred by Child. It represents a story that was certainly known by the time of the Sloane Life of Robin Hood in the late sixteenth century, so it is not clear why Child calls it "a comparatively late ballad" (III, 175) and prints it so late in his volume (no. 139), when, because of the earlier nature of the story, it should stand between The Jolly Pinder and Robin Hood and Little John (as no. 125).
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A a. (For text changes to make versions A b through A e, see End-Notes)
5. End-Notes
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 139. Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham
A. Roud No. 1790: Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham (13 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: (Bronson's traditional music version)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A a. with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: Robin Hood Progress to Nottingham
A. a. Wood, 402, leaf 14 b.
b. Wood, 401, leaf 37 b.
c. Garland of 1663, No 2.
d. Garland of 1670, No 1.
e. Pepys, II, 104, No 92.
This piece occurs also in the Roxburghe Ballads, III, 270, 845, the Douce, III, 120, was among Heber's ballads (a copy by W. Onley), and is probably in all collections of broadsides.
a or b was printed by Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 12. A copy in Evans's Old Ballads, 1777, 1784, I, 96, is later, and very like Douce, III, 120.
When Robin Hood is but fifteen years of age, he falls in with fifteen foresters who are drinking together at Nottingham. They hear with scorn that he intends to take part in a shooting-match. He wagers with them that he will kill a hart at a hundred rod, and does this. They refuse to pay, and bid him begone if he would save his sides from a basting. Robin kills them all with his bow; people come out from Nottingham to take him, but get very much hurt. Robin goes to the green wood; the townsmen bury the foresters.
This is evidently a comparatively late ballad, but has not come down to us in its oldest form. The story is told to the following effect in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane Manuscript 780, 7, fol. 157, written, as it seems, says Ritson, towards the end of the sixteenth century. Robin Hood, going into a forest with a bow of extraordinary strength, fell in with some rangers, or woodmen, who gibed at him for pretending to use a bow such as no man could shoot with. Robin said that he had two better, and that the one he had with him was only a "birding-bow"; nevertheless he would lay his head against a certain sum of money that he would kill a deer with it at a great distance. When the chance offered, one of the rangers sought to disconcert him by reminding him that he would lose his head if he missed his mark. Robin won the wager, and gave every man his money back except the one who had tried to fluster him. A quarrel followed, which ended with Robin's killing them all, and consequently betaking himself to life in the woods. Thorns, Early Prose Romances, II, Robin Hood, 37 ff.
Douce notes in his copy of Ritson's Robin Hood (Bodleian Library) the second stanza of this ballad as it is cited in the Duke of Newcastle's play, 'The Varietie':
When Robin came to Nottingham,
His dinner all for to dine,
There met him fifteen jolly foresters,
Were drinking ale and wine.
Gutch's Robin Hood, II, 123.
Translated by A. Grün, p. 61; Doenniges, p. 170.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This is a comparatively late ballad, but has not come down to us in its oldest form. The story is told in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane Manuscript 715, 7, fol. 157, written, as it seems, towards the end of the sixteenth century. See Thorns, Early Prose Romances, 11, Robin Hood, pp. 37 ff.
Child's Ballad Text
'Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham'- Version A a.; Child 139 Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham
a. Wood, 402, leaf 14 b.
b. Wood, 401, leaf 37 b.
c. Garland of 1663, No 2.
d. Garland of 1670, No 1.
e. Pepys, II, 104, No 92.
1 Robin Hood hee was and a tall young man,
Derry derry down
And fifteen winters old,
And Robin Hood he was a proper young man,
Of courage stout and bold.
Hey down derry derry down.
2 Robin Hood he would and to fair Nottingham,
With the general for to dine;
There was he ware of fifteen forresters,
And a drinking bear, ale, and wine.
3 'What news? What news?' said bold Robin Hood;
'What news, fain wouldest thou know?
Our king hath provided a shooting-match:'
'And I'm ready with my bow.'
4 'We hold it in scorn,' then said the forresters,
'That ever a boy so young
Should bear a bow before our king,
That's not able to draw one string.'
5 'I'le hold you twenty marks,' said bold Robin Hood,
'By the leave of Our Lady,
That I'le hit a mark a hundred rod,
And I'le cause a hart to dye.'
6 'We'l hold you twenty mark,' then said the forresters,
'By the leave of Our Lady,
Thou hitst not the marke a hundred rod,
Nor causest a hart to dye.'
7 Robin Hood he bent up a noble bow,
And a broad arrow he let flye,
He hit the mark a hundred rod,
And he caused a hart to dy.
8 Some said hee brake ribs one or two,
And some said hee brake three;
The arrow within the hart would not abide,
But it glanced in two or three.
9 The hart did skip, and the hart did leap,
And the hart lay on the ground;
'The wager is mine,' said bold Robin Hood,
'If 'twere for a thousand pound.'
10 'The wager's none of thine,' then said the forresters,
'Although thou beest in haste;
Take up thy bow, and get thee hence,
Lest wee thy sides do baste.'
11 Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And his broad arrows all amain,
And Robin Hood he laught, and begun to smile,
As hee went over the plain.
12 Then Robin Hood hee bent his noble bow,
And his broad arrows he let flye,
Till fourteen of these fifteen forresters
Vpon the ground did lye.
13 He that did this quarrel first begin
Went tripping over the plain;
But Robin Hood he bent his noble bow,
And hee fetcht him back again.
14 'You said I was no archer,' said Robin Hood,
'But say so now again;'
With that he sent another arrow
That split his head in twain.
15 'You have found mee an archer,' saith Robin Hood,
'Which will make your wives for to wring,
And wish that you had never spoke the word,
That I could not draw one string.'
16 The people that lived in fair Nottingham
Came runing out amain,
Supposing to have taken bold Robin Hood,
With the forresters that were slain.
17 Some lost legs, and some lost arms,
And some did lose their blood,
But Robin Hood hee took up his noble bow,
And is gone to the merry green wood.
18 They carryed these forresters into fair Nottingham,
As many there did know;
They digd them graves in their church-yard,
And they buried them all a row.
End-Notes
a, b. Robin Hoods Progresse to Nottingham,
Where hee met with fifteen forresters, all on a row,
And hee desired of them some news for to know,
But with crosse graind words they did him thwart,
For which at last hee made them smart.
To the tune of Bold Robin Hood.
a. London, Printed for Fran. Grove. And entred according to order. (1620-55: Chappell.)
b. London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. (1655-80: Chappell.)
3. Commonly punctuated as if spoken entirely by Robin. There would certainly be an antecedent probability against three speeches in one stanza, in an older ballad.
c, d. Robin Hoods Progress to Notingham, where he slew fifteen Forresters. To the tune of Bold Robin Hood.
c. 63. an.
73. a mark.
153. spake.
d. 73. an hundred.
113. began.
123. of the.
142. say you so.
143. he another arrnw let fly.
181. to fair.
e. Title as in a, b, above, with these variations in the verse:
2, news to.
3, And with.
4, them for to.
Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger. (1670-82?)
11 and wanting.
21. would unto.
23. aware.
41. scorn said bold R. Hood.
53. the mark an.
54, 74. one hart.
61. marks.
63. That thou: an.
73. an.
82. some say.
83. in for within.
112. all wanting.
113. began.
144. Which split.
151. said.
152. for wanting.
153. wish you ne'r had.
173. R. Hood he bent.
183. yards.
184. all on a row.