Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws Part 30

'But now I have slain the master,' he said, 'Let me go strike the knave; This is all the reward I ask, Nor no other will I have.'

51.

'Thou art a madman,' said the sheriff, 'Thou shouldest have had a knight's fee; Seeing thy asking hath been so bad, Well granted it shall be.'

52.

But Little John heard his master speak, Well he knew that was his steven; 'Now shall I be loosed,' quoth Little John, 'With Christ's might in heaven.'

53.

But Robin he hied him towards Little John, He thought he would loose him belive; The sheriff and all his company Fast after him did drive.

54.

'Stand aback! stand aback!' said Robin; 'Why draw you me so near?

It was never the use in our country One's shrift another should hear.'

55.

But Robin pulled forth an Irish knife, And loosed John hand and foot, And gave him Sir Guy's bow in his hand, And bade it be his boot.

56.

But John took Guy's bow in his hand (His arrows were rawsty by the root); The sheriff saw Little John draw a bow And fettle him to shoot.

57.

Towards his house in Nottingham He fled full fast away, And so did all his company, Not one behind did stay.

58.

But he could neither so fast go, Nor away so fast run, But Little John, with an arrow broad, Did cleave his heart in twain.

[Annotations: 1.1: 'shaws,' woods: 'sheen,' beautiful: 'shradds,' copses.

2.1: 'woodweel,' a small warbler. Percy, Ritson, Hazlitt, Halliwell, Child, Murray, Hales, and Furnivall, have variously identified it with the woodp.e.c.k.e.r, woodlark, redbreast, greenfinch, nuthatch, and 'golden ouzle.'

2.2: 'lyne,' tree.

3.4: 'wroken,' avenged.

4.1: 'swevens,' dreams.

5.1: 'Busk ye, bown ye' = get ready.

7.3: 'capul-hide,' horse-skin.

10.2: 'And' = if. So in next line.

12.4: 'slade,' valley, ravine.

15.2: 'fettled,' prepared.

16.3,4: 'bale, boot,' trouble, help.

20.1: 'quoth the sheriff' is added in the MS.

22.2: See 2.2 and 33.2, where it is obviously a commonplace.

24.1,2: Sir Guy means he has lost his way, and does not know the time of day.

26.1: 'whether' = which of the two. Robin, of course, is speaking.

27.1: 'masteries,' feats of skill.

27.4: 'unset Steven,' unfixed time: _i.e._ by chance.

28.1: 'shroggy,' wands, sticks.

28.4: 'p.r.i.c.ks,' marks for shooting at.

31.2,4: The 'garland' was simply a circular wreath, hung upon the 'p.r.i.c.k-wand,' or upright stick.

35.2: 'set by' = care for.

36.4: 'brown': see _Glossary of Ballad Commonplaces_, First Series, p. xlix.

38.1: 'reckless on,' heedless of.

40.3: 'awkward,' unexpected: another ballad-commonplace.

42.3: 'That' = so that.

45.4: We are not told how Robin knew what his men were doing.

46.4: 'low,' hill.

52.2: 'steven,' voice.

53.2: 'belive,' forthwith.

56.2: 'rawsty by the root.' It is suggested that this means rusty (_i.e._ with blood) at the root (tip, end).]

ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH

+The Text+ is modernised from the Percy Folio MS. (c. 1650). At two points, after 8.3 and 18.2, half a page of the MS., or about nine stanzas, is missing--torn out and 'used by maids to light the fire'

in Humphry Pitt's house, where Percy discovered the volume (see Introduction, First Series, x.x.xix.). At the end another half-page is lacking, but Child thinks that it represents only a few verses. He also indicates a lacuna after st. 4, though none appears in the MS.

+The Story+ of this version, mutilated as it is, agrees in its main incidents with that given at the end of the _Gest_ (stt. 451-455).

Another variant, _Robin Hood's Death and Burial_, extant in two or three eighteenth-century 'Garlands,' but none the less of good derivation, gives no a.s.sistance at either hiatus, and we are left with a couple of puzzles.

The opening of the ballad, stt. 1-6, should be compared with _Robin Hood and the Monk_, stt. 6-10, where Much takes Will Scarlett's place. Robin, shooting for a penny with Little John along the way, comes to a black water with a plank across it, and an old woman on the plank is cursing Robin Hood. He has been already reminded by Scarlett that he has a yeoman foe at Kirklees; but neither the banning of the witch, nor the weeping of others ('We,' 9.3), presumably women, deter him. The explanation of the witch is lost.

Having arrived at Kirklees and submitted to being bled, Robin at length suspects treason, and hints as much to Little John. The latter may be indoors with his master, or, as Child thinks, calling to Robin through a window from below. Here the second hiatus occurs; and when the ballad resumes, we can only guess that st. 19 is Robin's final retort after an altercation with somebody, presumably Red Roger, who is perhaps the 'yeoman' referred to by Will Scarlett. A final difficulty is raised by the word 'mood' in st. 23; but Child's emendation is not improbable, and Robin himself realises that he must take his 'housel' in an irregular way.

In the Garland version Robin goes alone to Kirklees, where his 'cousin'

bleeds him, and leaves him to bleed all day and all night in a locked room. He summons Little John with 'weak blasts three' of his horn, and bids him dig a grave where the last arrow shot by Robin Hood falls.

ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH

1.

'I will never eat nor drink,' Robin Hood said, 'Nor meat will do me no good, Till I have been at merry Churchlees, My veins for to let blood.'

2.

'That I rede not,' said Will Scarlett, 'Master, by the a.s.sent of me, Without half a hundred of your best bowmen You take to go with ye.

3.

'For there a good yeoman doth abide, Will be sure to quarrel with thee, And if thou have need of us, master, In faith we will not flee.'

4.

'And thou be fear'd, thou William Scarlett, At home I rede thee be.'

'And you be wroth, my dear master, You shall never hear more of me.'

5.

'For there shall no man with me go, Nor man with me ride, And Little John shall be my man, And bear my benbow by my side.'

6.