VIII. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. ...................................................................
[1]We have here a ballad of Robin Hood (from the Editor's folio manuscript)
which was never before printed, and carries marks of much greater antiquity than any
of the common popular songs on this subject.
The severity of those tyrannical forest-laws, that were introduced by our
Norman kings, and the great temptation of breaking them by such as lived near the
royal forests, at a time when the yeomanry of this kingdom were every where trained
up to the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, must
constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such as were
the best marksmen. These naturally fled to the woods for shelter; and, forming into
troops, endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful
penalties of their delinquency. The ancient punishment for killing the king's deer was
loss of eyes and castration, a punishment far worse than death. This will easily
account for the troops of banditti which lurked in the royal forests, and, from their
superior skill in archery and knowledge of all the recesses of those unfrequented
solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil power.
Among all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of this ballad,
whose chief residence was in Shirewood forest, in Nottinghamshire; and the heads of
whose story, as collected by Stow, are briefly these:
"In this time [about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard I.] were many
robbers, and outlawes, among the which Robin Hood, and Little John, renowned
theeves, continued in woods, despoyling and robbing the goods of the rich. They
killed none but such as would invade them, or by resistance for their own defence.
"The saide Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with
suche spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so
strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or
otherwise molested: poore mens goods he spared, abundantlie relieving them with that
which by theft he got from abbeys and the houses of rich carles: whom Maior (the
historian) blameth for his rapine and theft, but of all the theeves he affirmeth him to
be the prince, and the most gentle theefe."--Annals, p. 159.
The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his
humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and giving to
the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the common people, who, not
content to celebrate his memory by innumerable songs and stories, have erected him
into the dignity of an earl. Indeed, it is not impossible, but our hero, to gain the more
respect from his followers, or they to derive the more credit to their profession, may
have given rise to such a report themselves: for we find it recorded in an epitaph,
which, if genuine, must have been inscribed on his tombstone near the nunnery of
Kirklees in Yorkshire; where (as the story goes) he was bled to death by a treacherous
nun to whom he applied for phlebotomy:
Hear underneath this little stean
laiz robert earl of huntingtun
nea areir ver az he sae geud
An pipl kauld him Robin Heud
sick utlawz az hi an is men
vil Engiland nivir si agen.
obiit 24 kal. dekembris, 1247.[2]