56 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 20191516 King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine took
part in May Day festivities. Two hundred of the
king’s men dressed in green and one dressed as
Robin Hood led the monarchs to a feast.
Several more characters begin to appear in the
Robin Hood stories at this point. One is Maid
Marian, and the other is Friar Tuck. The two en-
ter into the legend at around the same time. Like
Robin Hood, these two were also popular figures
at the May games, and they begin appearing in
literary works as well.
One of Friar Tuck’s earliest appearances is in
the play Robyn Hod and the Sheryff off Notyngham,
which dates to approximately the late 15th cen-
tury. His popularity grew in the coming years,
and he appeared more frequently in later works,
such as Robin Hood and the Friar from the 1560s.
This work features an episode where the monk
bests Robin Hood and tosses him in a stream.
In the Elizabethan era Robin Hood became a
popular presence in plays staged for the upper
classes. Several playwrights, such as William
Shakespeare, featured him in their works. Most
notable was Anthony Munday, who wrote twoT
HE ROBIN HOOD LEGEND was a perfect fit for the silver screen
in the 20th century, when more than 40 films were shot fea-
turing the noble outlaw with a heart of gold. His most iconic
moment on film came in the 1938 Technicolor movie The
Adventures of Robin Hood, the Warner Bros. classic packed with sword
fights and medieval costumes. Errol Flynn’s Robin is an impoverished
nobleman and honest-speaking Saxon “cockerel,” chafing under the
taxes of corrupt Prince John and Guy of Gisborne—who is wooing
the beautiful Marian, played by Olivia de Havilland. Closely modeled
on the novelist Walter Scott’s version of the noble Sherwood Forest
outlaw, Robin takes on the prince and the greedy Norman barons in
a guerrilla war, redistributing wealth from the rich to win over both
the poor of Nottinghamshire and the heart of Lady Marian. Unlike
medieval versions of the story, which revel in rebelling against royal
authority, Flynn’s Robin is no anarchist; he fights against corruption.
The illegitimate ruler Prince John must be humbled by Robin to make
way for the return of the king, Richard the Lionheart. Robin emerges
as a noble outlaw, rising above the feuds of Norman-versus-Saxon
to declare: “It’s injustice I hate, not the Normans.”BANDITS ON
THE BIG SCREEN
ERROL FLYNN AND OLIVIA DE
HAVILLAND IN A PUBLICITY STILL
FOR THE 1938 TECHNICOLOR MOVIE
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
MOVIE POSTER IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES