Bluegrass Messengers

Recordings & Info 140. Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires

[Child gives as an Appendix: Robin Hood and the Sheriff.]

CONTENTS:

1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Wiki
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Mainly Norfolk
7) Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men: Introduction
8) (Appendix: Robin Hood and the Sheriff) Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham: Introduction

ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 71: Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires (54 Listings)

Alternative Titles

Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons
Bold Robin
Bold Robing
Robin Hood and the Old Maid
Robin Hood and the Old Woman

Traditional Ballad Index: Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140]

DESCRIPTION: Robin learns from (a women/their mother) that three men are to be hanged for deer-killing. He meets a (palmer/beggar) who confirms this. Robin insists on trading clothes, goes disguised to Nottingham, blows his horn for his men, and rescues the three.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy manuscript)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood execution disguise rescue
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (16 citations)
Child 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (4 texts)
Bronson 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (7 versions+2 in addenda)
GreigDuncan2 243 (plus 1 verse on p. 547), "Robin Hood and the Squires" (2 texts)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 2420-242, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 69-72, "Bold Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 107-116, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (3 texts, with A1 and A2 being variant versions from the same informant, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2, with some small variants}
BrownII 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text with variants from several performances by the same informant)
BrownSchinhanIV 33, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 341, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
OBB 122, "Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons" (1 text)
PBB 69, "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" (1 text)
Niles 47, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second perhaps being mixed with Child 143)
Chase, pp. 124-126, "Bold Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this piece although it has many floating lyrics, e.g. from "The House Carpenter") {Bronson's #4}
Darling-NAS, pp. 87-90, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
DT 140, RH3SQUIR*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Oudlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 476-485, "Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men" (1 text,based on one of the garlands)
Roud #71
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Robin Hood and the Old Maid
Robin Hood and the Old Woman
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 513, notes the interesting fact that this is the only ballad incident to appear in the plays of Anthony Munday, who seems to have thrown the Robin Hood legend in a very different (and less attractive) direction after the appearance of the plays in 1598-1599. Knight/Ohlgren think that Munday borrowed the story. I am not sure I agree. The ballad feels like a seventeenth, or even eighteenth, century composition, by a literary hack who is trying to imitate true ballad style (and not succeeding very well). I would not be surprised if the poem takes the incident from Munday rather than the reverse.
And yet, it is Child's opinion that "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" [Child 141] is an "imitation" of this piece, which means it must predate the 1663 garland which contains "Will Stutly." Also, there are several garland prints of this, all undated, but this strongly hints at a date before 1675. Possibly well before. - RBW

Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires or Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons is Child ballad 140, about Robin Hood.

Synopsis
Robin meets an old woman lamenting that her sons will hang for poaching the king's deer. He persuades an old man to trade his ragged clothing for Robin's fine clothes, and in this disguise, offers to be the sheriff's hangman. He blows on his horn, and his men arrive. In some variants, they hang the sheriff instead of the three young men; in all, they all escape back to the greenwood.

Adaptations
Howard Pyle retold this story in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood with the hero as Little John; he used trickery to get the three young men away, and his bow broke, resulting in his own capture. Robin Hood, having just killed Guy of Gisbourne, disguises himself as Guy to carry out the rescue.

Child Collection Index Child Ballad 140: Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires

Child-- Artist-- Title-- Album-- Year-- Length-- Have
140 Alonzo Lewis Bold Robin Hood The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
140 Angelo Dornan Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires The Helen Creighton Collection No
140 Charles Finnemore Bold Robin Hood (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
140 Charles Finnemore Bold Robin Hood (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
140 Charles Finnemore Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires Burly Banks of Barbry O: Eight Traditional British-American Ballads 1953 No
140 Dean Robinson Bold Robin Hood Unto Brigg Fair - Joseph Taylor and Other Traditional Lincolnshire Singers 1972 2:16 Yes
140 Dean Robinson Robin Hood and the Three Squires Unto Brigg Fair - Grainger, Delius & the Lincolnshire Singers 1979 No
140 Jim & Lynette Eldon Robin Hood and the Three Squires Jim & Lynette Eldon 1997 1:57 Yes
140 John Kirkpatrick Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires Ballads 1997 8:02 Yes
140 Margaret MacArthur Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires Ballads Thrice Twisted 1999 6:08 Yes
140 The Songwainers Robin Hood and the Three Squires The Songwainers 1971 3:56 Yes
140 Wallace House Robin Hood and the Three Squires Robin Hood Ballads 1953 2:47 Yes

Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America

by Tristram Coffin 1950, fom the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
140. ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THREE SQUIRES

Texts; American Songster (Cozzens, N.Y.), 204 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 240 / Brown Coll.
Local Titles: Robin Hood.

Story Types: A: Robin Hood meets a young lady who, weeping, tells him that three squires of Nottingham have been taken prisoner. Robin calls his men for council and sets out for the town. En route, he meets a beggar. He changes clothes with the man for fifty guineas. Robin then meets the sheriff and tells the officer that he would like to hang the three squires personally
and to give three blasts on his horn "that their souls in heaven might be". The request is granted. Robin mounts the scaffold and gives the three blasts, which serve as a signal to his men. They come, and the sheriff gives over the three squires.

Examples: Barry.

Discussion: The Maine version follows Child C, although the lady is not the mother of the three squires. Thus, the hanging of the sheriff on his own gallows, a feature of Child B, is not included.

See the American Songster for a different text which Barry, Brit Bids Me, 242 notes comes from either a poor stall copy or an oral source.

Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music

Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires
[Roud 71 ; Child 140 ; Ballad Index C140 ; trad.]

John Kirkpatrick sang Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires on 1997 on the Fellside anthology Ballads. Paul Adams commented in the album's liner notes:

As England's foremost mythical hero it seems fitting that there should be a good number of ballads devoted to his exploits (Child printed 38). This one is based on the song sung to Vaughan Williams by Mrs Goodyear of Axford, Hampshire in 1909. To fill the gaps in the story John has adapted verses from versions in Child and that remembered by Northamptonshire poet, John Clare.

ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE THREE SQUIRES

I'll tell you a story of bold Robin Hood
Through the forest around ranged he
And the first that he met was a gay lady
A-weeping all on the highway

'Oh why do you weep, gay lady?', he said
'Oh why do you weep?', said he
'Oh why do you weep?', said bold Robin Hood
'I pray thee, come tell unto me'

'Oh do you weep for gold?', he said
'Or do you weep for fee?
'Or do you weep for your sweet maidenhead
That some villain has stolen from thee?'

'Oh, I don't weep for gold', she said
'Nor do I weep for fee
'Nor do I weep for me sweet maidenhead
'For no villain has stole it from me'

'But I do weep', this lady she said,
And bitterly she did cry,
'O I do weep for my three sons
For they are condemned to die'

'What church have they plundered?', said bold Robin Hood
'Or what parish priests have they slain?
'Or have they forced maidens against their will
'Or with other men's wives have they lain?'

'Oh no church have they plundered', this lady she said
'Nor no parish priests have they slain
'Nor have they forced maidens against their will
'Nor with other men's wives have they lain'

'But this they have done', the lady she said
'That they are condemned to die
'They've stolen sixteen of the king's royal deer
'And for that to be hanged on high'

'Oh go you 'way home, gay lady', he said
'Go you 'way home', said he
'Oh go you 'way home', said bold Robin Hood
'Tomorrow I set them free'

Oh my scarf for a favour, pray wear it', she said
'For a fine gallant knight such as thee
'You do me great honour, my champion to ride
'For me and me sons all three'

'Oh, your favour, I'll wear it', said bold Robin Hood
'For truly 'tis you honour me
'For I am no knight, kind lady', he said
'But gladly your champion I'll be'

So bold Robin Hood he was galloping along
'T was in the best part of the day
When there he did meet with an old beggarman
Come begging all on the highway

'Oh, what news, what news, old father', he said
'What news, pray tell unto me'
'Oh there's weeping and wailing in Nottingham town
'And it's all for the squires all three'

Now the beggarman had an old coat on his back
Nor green, nor yellow, nor red
And thinks bold Robin Hood, 't would serve him full well
To be in this beggarman's stead

'Oh, come change your apparel, old father', he said
'Come change your apparel with mine'
'And here's twenty good shillings to drink your own health
'In merry good ale and wine'

'Oh, you are apparelled in clothing so fine
'Mine is all ragged and torn
'But still it's not fitting a young man like you
'Should laugh an old man to scorn'

'Oh, no scorn do I give thee', said bold Robin Hood
'I swear by Our Lady
'For tales will be told of your beggarman's coat
'If a beggarman you'll let me be'

So they changed their apparel, they changed all their clothes
Till each wore the other's attire
And as much like a beggar did Robin Hood look
As the beggarman looked like a squire

For the beggarman's hat did Robin have on
That stood full high at the crown
'Sure, no one will know me', said bold Robin Hood
In the whole of fair Nottingham town

And the beggarman's britches did Robin have on
With patches from ball-up to side
'By the breath of my body', said bold Robin Hood
'I never wore so little pride'

And the begarman's coat did Robin have on
'T was worn right through to the skin
'Though I shake and I shiver', said bold Robin Hood
'There's pockets a-plenty within'

'There's a pocket for meal, a pocket for malt
'And a pocket for barley and corn
'And one pocket more to make up the score
'And that's for my bugle horn'

So bold Robin Hood to Nottingham came
To Nottingham town came he
And the sheriff did meet, and him he did greet
Likewise the squires all three

'Oh save you, oh save you, High Sheriff', he said
'And I beg you all down on one knee
That as for the death of these three squires
The hangman I might be

'Soon granted, soon granted', the High Sheriff said
'Soon granted unto thee
'And you shall have all of their clothing so fine
'And their money to be your fee'

'Oh, I want none of their clothing so fine
'Nor their money to be my fee
'But all I desire is to blast on my horn
'That their souls to heaven may flee'

So Robin Hood climbed up to the gallows so high
Went skipping from stock to stone
'By the faith of my body', the High Sheriff said
'You're nimble for an old beggarman'

'Oh, look well, look well on this old beggarman
'Look well, High Sheriff', said he
'For tales will be told of this beggarman's coat
'With its patches and pockets so free'

'I've a pocket for meal, a pocket for malt
'And a pocket for barley and corn
'And one pocket more to make up the score
'And that's for my bugle horn'

'Oh blow, then blow', the High Sheriff said
'Blow, and have no doubt
'I would have you blow well such a mighty fine blast
'You'd blow both your blessed eyes out'

So Robin blew once, Robin blew twice
And Robin blew three times shrill
Till a hundred and ten of Robin Hood's men
Came running all down the green hill

'What men are those?', the High Sheriff said
'What men are all those?', said he
'Oh, they're all of them mine and none of them thine
'And they've come for the squires all three'

'Oh take them, oh take them', the High Sheriff said
'And a curse on your bugle that blows
'And curse every pocket in your beggarman's cloak
'And curse you and your beggarman's clothes'

Then bold Robin Hood he shot a fat buck
Little John he shot a fat doe
And they are away to the merry green wood
With the three squires all in a row, a row
The three squires all in a row

Source: transcription of John Kirkpatrick 'Robin Hood Rescuing The Three Squires' on Various Artists 'Ballads' Fellside FECD 110.

ROBIN HOOD RESCUES THREE YOUNG MEN: INTRODUCTION

Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men: Introduction
Edited by Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren
Originally Published in Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997

This ballad has many slightly different versions, some of which show the influence of other Robin Hood ballads. Such a complex set of overlapping texts is common in the case of the "big" ballads like Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight or Clerk Saunders but unusual in the Robin Hood tradition. As a result, the title of this ballad itself is not easy to fix: Child calls it Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires, but only in some versions are the potential victims called squires. In others they are the widow's three sons or three brothers, and sometimes they are Robin's own men. The essence of the ballad is that Robin disguises himself as the hangman in order to rescue wrongfully condemned men, and a general title, Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men, seems the best.

The ballad is found in a much damaged form in Percy's folio MS and the base text here is the earliest full version, found in an eighteenth-century garland; though the Percy version is a little different it only covers two incidents in a fairly long ballad, and while these are useful for collation and emendation, it would be inappropriate and require substantial editorial invention to link those episodes into the other text. The story clearly goes back some way; this is the only substantial borrowing from the ballad tradition to appear in Munday's The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington, of 1598-99, where the rescue is of Scathelock and Scarlet, Robin's men and sons of Widow Scarlet. In that and in other versions of the ballad there seems some link between this old woman and the one who changes clothes with Robin for his protection in Robin Hood and the Bishop. On his way to rescue the young men Robin usually changes clothes with a beggar, in a scene that resembles one from Robin Hood and the Beggar I (Child, III, 157, see stanzas 16-18), though there the Beggar then becomes a worthy opponent in a ``Robin Hood meets his match'' structure.

The ballad, though recorded late in full form, appears to have a direct style likely to derive from the early seventeenth century at the latest: rhyme is reasonably accurate but not over-precise, diction is colloquial and direct with no sign of bookish invention. There is a good deal of repetition with change (lines 13-20, 37-48) as well as a good deal of rhetorical repetition (lines 73-74, 77-79, 89-92), both of which suggest an oral context of some kind. This is also a strong story of quick and decisive action, where Robin moves between the widow, the beggar, and the sheriff with speedy confidence. The ballad has the dramatic flavor of the earliest texts, and at least some of their sense of social conflict; the outlaws' real threat to bad authority is suggested when they move the gallows from the town to hang the sheriff in the glen, their own territory, where he has done his damage.

Unelaborate but highly effective, Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men is clearly one of the more strongly popular of the mainstream outlaw ballads, and its multiplicity and manifold changes indicate how close it remained to the popular voice, rather than, like some others, becoming set in a literary form.

ROBYN HOD AND THE SHRYFF OFF NOTYNGHAM: INTRODUCTION

Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham: Introduction
Edited by Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren
Originally Published in Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997

Notwithstanding his important role in ballads and prose fiction, Robin Hood would have been best known in communities throughout fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Britain as the subject of a wide range of theatrical and quasi-theatrical entertainments. Most took the form of ceremonial games, dances, pageants, processions, and other mimetic events of popular culture of which we only get a fleeting glimpse in surviving civic and ecclesiastical records. Revels featuring the legendary outlaw appear to have surged in growth towards the close of the fifteenth century and remained popular from the royal court to the rural village green throughout the following century (Lancashire, p. xxvi). Indeed, it is not exaggerating to say that Robin Hood plays and games were the most popular form of secular dramatic entertainment in provincial England for most of the sixteenth century (for records of performance, see Lancashire, index under "Robin Hood"). This is generally unrecognized by both literary and theatrical historians, many of whom assume that the Tudor Reformation quickly put an end to such popular pastimes -- it did not (White, p. 163). But there are other reasons for overlooking Robin Hood spectacles: few Robin Hood play scripts survive (folk plays were rarely written down and published) and only in the past few years have archivists and provincial historians (many working on the Records of Early English Drama project) begun to document in a systematic way records of theatrical entertainment in early modern England.

Although the first record of a Robin Hood play is from Exeter in 1426-27 (Lancashire, p. 134), the earliest extant play text, a twenty-one line dramatic fragment from East Anglia known as Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, is dated half-a-century later. The text is written on one side of a single sheet of paper, now housed in Trinity College Library, Cambridge; the other side of the page, in a hand thought to be from the same period, contains accounts of money received by one John Sterndalle in 1475-76 (Dobson and Taylor, p. 203). Scholars connect the manuscript to Sir John Paston, who, in a letter of April 1473, complains that his horse-keeper W. Wood has "goon into Bernysdale" (i.e., left his service). Paston further remarks that "I have kepyd hym thys iij. yer to pleye Seynt Jorge and Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham" (Gairdner, p. 185). It would appear, therefore, that this script is of a Robin Hood play sponsored by the household of this well-to-do Norwich gentleman and performed by his servants in the early 1470s.

As the transcription of the manuscript version, which lacks speaker rubrics, scene divisions, and stage directions, makes clear, the text is more of "a scenario or mnemonic providing a framework for improvisation" than a finished script (Wiles, p. 37). While there are certainly ambiguities in the text, the settings, speakers, and actions, especially in the first scene, are relatively easy to follow, which suggests that the script may be complete as it stands. The mentions of the lynde in line 3 and the prysone in line 20 indicate that there are two fictional settings: the greenwood and a prison. We say "fictional" because the staging conventions of the time required little more than a spacious outdoor playing area -- perhaps a field near the Paston household, where archery, wrestling, and stone-throwing competitions could take place freely. The dialogue, much of it in direct address, often mentions the addressee's name: Syr Sheryffe (line 1), Robyn Hode (line 5), Syr Knyght (line 15), indicating a cast of three actors for the scene, possibly others if Robin's men appear when summoned (line 17). Likewise, the simple active verbs identify most of the actions and act as stage directions: caste the stone (line 11), blowe myn horne (line 17), and off I smyte (line 22). The second scene, however, is much less clear in speaker identity and action, although it is reasonable to conclude that it requires seven or more actors to play two unnamed outlaws, Friar Tuck, the Sheriff, his deputies, and Robin Hood.

The minimal dialogue and the active verbs underscore the real appeal of the play -- improvisational action. What is important here is robust activity: an archery match, stone throwing, tossing the pole ("caber" in Scotland), wrestling, and vigorous sword fighting. "The dialogue," as David Wiles observes, "serves simply to punctuate the action" (pp. 31, 37). The various sporting competitions are akin to those performed in May games, of which, in many communities, Robin Hood plays formed an important part (see Introduction to Robyn Hood and the Friar and Robyn Hood and the Potter, pp. 281-84), and the climactic hero-combat of the first scene and the melee at the end of the second recall two other types of folk drama popular in the fifteenth century, the St. George play and the Hock Tuesday play. Not surprisingly, Paston's servant/player, Wood, excelled in the St. George play as well (see Mills, pp. 136-37).

As mentioned above, the plot of the first scene is relatively straightforward. An unidentified knight offers to capture Robin Hood, and the sheriff agrees, offering to pay him golde and fee. The sheriff apparently withdraws, while the knight confronts Robin under a tree and challenges him to an archery contest. The shooting match proceeds, and Robin wins when he splits the target. Next the pair compete at stone casting, pole throwing, and wrestling. Robin wins one fall, while the knight wins the other. After being thrown, Robin curses the knight and blows his horn to summon help from his companions. Robin then challenges the knight to a sword fight to the death, and Robin kills the knight and cuts off his head, placing the severed head in his hood. Robin then dons the knight's attire, and the first scene ends. As David Mills remarks, a good part of the play's impact derives "from the comic social inversion of the knight's defeat, and a further part from the recognition and dramatic frustration of the 'death-resurrection-triumph' pattern of hero-combat plays. The knight's death here is final, followed by his functional beheading (to prevent identification?)" (Mills, p. 136).

The second scene begins when two unidentified outlaws greet each other, one telling the other that Robin and some of his men have been captured by the sheriff. (This revelation does not follow logically from what has happened at the end of the first scene, when Robin kills the bounty-hunting knight and dons his clothing. In order for the second scene to make sense, Robin has to have been identified and captured by the sheriff; so something is missing here.) The two outlaws then agree to sette on foote (line 29) in order to find and kill the sheriff. On route to town, they see Friar Tuck drawing his bow; he is single-handedly fighting the sheriff and his men. The three of them are suddenly surrounded and ordered to yield. One of the outlaws (Little John?), addressing Friar Tuck, exclaims that they have been captured and bound. As the three outlaws are taken to the gates of the prison, the sheriff orders the fals outlawe (line 37), presumably Robin Hood who is inside, to come out to face his execution. As the gates are opened for the thevys to go in -- and this is conjectural -- Robin and the men inside jump the sheriff and his men, rescue the three outlaws outside, and escape. This reading resolves the problem, as created by Wiles and others, of having Robin, still in disguise as the knight, show up to rescue his men and throw the sheriff in prison. While Wiles's reading gives the play ironic closure -- the "jailer jailed" -- it ignores the fact that Robin has been taken prisoner in lines 27-28.

Much of the critical commentary has attempted to link the play to the ballad Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. While there are similarities -- the sheriff hires a bounty-hunter to kill Robin, Robin and the antagonist engage in a shooting match and a sword fight, Robin decapitates his enemy and blows a horn, and Robin frees Little John from the sheriff -- the major differences suggest instead that the play and the ballad share a common but distant source.

Two other points are worth noting. First, the references to Frere Tuke in lines 31 and 36 of the play are significant because they mark the first appearance of the outlaw ecclesiastic in literature. The early ballads -- Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, and the Gest -- feature Robin, Little John, Much, and Will, but not Friar Tuck. In Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin is forced to go to Nottingham to attend mass because he has no chaplain in Sherwood. Like Maid Marian, Friar Tuck enters the legend relatively late and from a source different from the early ballads. One theory identifies Friar Tuck as the criminal alias of a historical outlaw, Robert Stafford, chaplain of Lindfield, Sussex, who was charged in 1417 with a variety of serious offenses, including poaching, robbery, and murder (Holt, 1989, 58-59). Another theory connects Friar Tuck to the morris dances, in which a friar is paired with a "girlfriend," popularly identified as Maid Marian. The morris dance, however, is a late medieval, if not a Tudor, development, and, hence, too late to have influenced the 1475 play (Knight, 1994, p. 104). A third theory, not mentioned by previous commentators, is that Friar Tuck is somehow related to another historical outlaw, Eustache the Monk (c. 1170-1217), who is the subject of a thirteenth-century French romance, Li Romans de Witasse le Moine. After his father was murdered, Eustache left the abbey of Saint Samer and demanded justice from the count of Boulogne. When Eustache's champion loses the judicial duel, his lands and titles are confiscated by the count. Eustache escapes and disguises himself as a monk, calling himself Witasse le Moine. Using a variety of other disguises and tricks, Eustache exacts his revenge on the count by harrying his men and stealing his property. Eustache was not unknown in England, where for a time he supported the cause of King John against the French. Switching sides, he was killed by the English in a naval battle at Sandwich in 1217. In The Lost Literature of Medieval England (London: Methuen, 1970), R. M. Wilson observes that the stories of Eustache were well-known in England (p. 117). Among other accounts, now lost, two fourteenth-century chroniclers, John of Canterbury and William of Guisborough, recounted his adventures.

Of further significance is that the play, like contemporary ballads and commentary through to the mid-sixteenth century, emphasizes Robin Hood as a "figure of anarchy rather than of justice" (Mills, p. 133) who is openly defiant of constituted authority. Not surprisingly, some government officials perceived the plays as politically subversive. Around 1540, Richard Morrison, an advisor to Henry VIII, condemned "the lewdenes and ribawdry that there is opened to the people, disobedience also to your [i.e., the King's] officers, is tought, whilest these good bloodes go about to take from the shiref of Notyngham one that for offendyng the lawes should have suffered execution" (text in Anglo; see p. 179). Critics in the past have explained the inversion of authority in the plays as a civic-and-church sponsored "safety-valve" to release pent-up frustrations of the common people, and indeed at least one contemporary reported that the mock fighting was a useful form of military exercise for the citizenry preparing for invasion and war (Child, III, 45). Nevertheless some recent scholarship has connected seasonal festivity involving Robin Hood to popular resistance and even peasant rebellions (Billington, p. 1). Certainly there are instances of social disorder, even riots, occasioned by Robin Hood games, but surviving records are either ambiguous about the cause of disorder or indicate that the riots, or threatened riots, arose from prohibitions against the popular revels (Lancashire, p. 91). Moreover, studies undertaken by Peter Greenfield and James Stokes demonstrate that in the majority of cases in provincial towns of England, "Robin Hood games and king-ales function as charitable fund-raisers, authorized by and organized by local officials -- usually the churchwardens -- and usually culminating in a communal feast," and that they are "anything but spontaneous expressions of popular resistance to authority" (Greenfield, p. 2; Stokes).

The text of the dramatic fragment is presented in two versions: an exact transcription of the manuscript, retaining the spellings and punctuation, and a conjectural reconstruction of the fragment in two scenes.

Selected Bibliography
Manuscript

Trinity College Library, Cambridge, R.2.64 (fragment).

Editions

Child, F. J., ed. English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1882-98; rpt. New York: Dover, 1965. Vol III, 90-91.

Dobson, R. B., and J. Taylor, eds. Rymes of Robin Hode: An Introduction to the English Outlaw. London: William Heinemann, 1976. Pp. 203-07.

Greg, W. W., ed. "Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, A Dramatic Fragment." Collections Part II. The Malone Society. Vol. 1. Oxford, 1908. Pp. 120-24.

Manly, J. M., ed. Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama, I. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1897. Pp. 279-81.

Wiles, David. The Early Plays of Robin Hood. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1981.

Commentary and Criticism

Anglo, Sydney. "An Early Tudor Programme for Plays and Other Demonstrations against the Pope." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 20 (1957), 176-79.

Billington, Sandra. Mock Kings in Medieval Society and Renaissance Drama. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992. P. 1.

Chambers, E. K. The English Folk-Play. Oxford, 1933.

------. The Medieval Stage, I. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953. Pp. 160-81.

Child, F. J., ed. English And Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1882-98. Rpt. New York: Dover, 1965.

Dobson, R. B., and J. Taylor, eds. Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw. London: William Heinemann, 1976.

Gairdner, James, ed. The Paston Letters A.D. 1422-1509. New York: AMS Press, 1965.

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