Till anchors brake, and topmasts lap; Where will I find a bonny boy Loth, loth were our good Scots lords Their hats were wet aboon.* Many was the feather-bed + That flottered on the faem; And many was the good Scots lord It's forty miles to Aberdeen, And there lie a' our good Scots lords, The ladies wrang their hands sae white, A' for the sake of their true loves, Long, long may our ladies stand Wi' their fans in their hand, Ere they see Sir Patrick and his men JAMIESON. * Above. + This is probably introduced to shew their luxury, as feather-beds were very rare articles in those days. Weeping. ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE.* MOST of the readers of this selection have doubtless met with the general particulars of the life of this celebrated outlaw and his principal companions. He and his " merry men" of Sherwood Forest, had obtained a greater hold on the traditional lore and provincial feelings of the populace, than even the most celebrated conquerors; and the victories of Cressy or Agincourt were less esteemed than the exploits of Robin Hood. Indeed, if we suffer the feelings of true equity and honour to sleep, there are few subjects better calculated to excite the pleasing romance of imagination, than the adventures of this popular chief. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the qualities of heroic daring and savage magnanimity: he was accustomed to venturous ambushes and hair-breadth escapes. By a rather more civilized demeanour than might be expected from a robber, and by occasional acts of generosity to those who fell in his power, he gained the reputation of a "gentel theefe;" and by his levelling principle of taking from the rich, and giving some part of it to the poor, he became the darling of the common people. At the same time, when we find an author of talent, like Mr. Ritson, seriously holding this eccentric character up, as a man perfectly fulfilling all the duties required of a subject and citizen, and comparing him, with low and mean ribaldry, to respectable classes of men in the present day, then it is time to pause, and express, in the strongest terms, our reprobation and detestation of such pernicious opinions, and such a prostitution of learning and genius. But it is to be hoped that in most of his opinions, Mr. Ritson has few imitators. Robin Hood held his abode in Sherwood Forest, which is now dismantled, but which then comprehended nearly the whole of the north part of Nottinghamshire. He entertained a hundred men, who, being picked men, both for corporeal strength and skill in archery, were considered a match for four times their number of ordinary assailants. They were clad in (Lincoln) green, for a curious reason, which the reader would scarcely guess; viz., that this, as most resembled to the colour of the fern and grass, they * A market-town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and on the borders of Lancashire. would have the better chance of being unseen when they lay in His principal companions ambush, either for herds, or for men. were Maid Marian, his mistress, or, it is not absolutely certain that she might not have been ultimately his wife; Little John, whose simple appellation is sufficient to introduce him to the reader; Friar Tuck, a libertine and drunken friar, a kind of monkish Falstaff; Wonderful Scarlet, Scatchlock, Much the Miller, and others. stories are related of his skill in archery;-as, that he or his man Little John could shoot an arrow to the distance of a measured mile; of which, perhaps, we are scarcely fair judges in the present We are told, howday; but it certainly seems utterly incredible. ever, that it was by no means uncommon to kill a deer with an arrow at the distance of two hundred yards. Robin Hood's constant opponent seems to have been, the Sheriff of Nottingham; an official, who would no doubt be anxious to distinguish himself by the subversion of this celebrated enemy of the law, and who was probably strengthened with additional powers by the government for the occasion. Several meetings and contests between these two, are among the subjects of the numerous ballads of Robin Hood. The detestable severity of the Norman Forest Laws, which occasioned a man to flee for his life after one single transgression, and the great temptation to good archers living on the borders of the royal forests, are said to have been the predominant causes of the assemblage of outlawed troops, who endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the consequences of their delinquency.— And, that we may not be too hard upon Robin Hood, we must allow him, with Camden and Fuller, to have been "one of the mildest of thieves,"* -never robbing the poor, but occasionally giving them a part of his spoil, and treating the weaker sex with great respect. He was a bitter enemy to the persons, or rather to the wealth, of the monks and friars; and yet, according to his ideas and those of the age, he shewed some deference to religion, always respecting the rites of the Catholic church, and having founded a chapel in the forest, with other acts of this kind. Robin Hood was born in the year 1160, and died in the year 1247, aged 87. He is said to have had, from ancestral connexion, some claims on the earldom of Huntingdon,-a point on which antiquaries are not agreed; he was styled however as such in an epitaph formerly to be seen on his tomb, at Kirkleys, in Yorkshire. Hear undernead dis laitl stean Obiit 24 Kal: dekembris 1247. * MITISSIMUM PRÆDONUM. Here, underneath this little stone, Obiit 24 Cal. Decembris, 1247. This epitaph was perhaps inscribed a century or two later. Two volumes of ballads, relating to Robin Hood, have been published by Mr. Ritson, in which much research is displayed; but as these, like others of his publications, though in a greater degree, are deformed by licentiousness, and gross and low impiety, the Editor rather wishes to refer the reader to Mr. Evans's collection, in four volumes; in the second of which will be found about thirty ballads of Robin Hood, in a modernized and legible form. WHEN Shaws be sheen, and shradds full fair, It is merry walking in the fair forest, To hear the small birds' song. The woodwele + sang, and would not cease, So loud, he wakened Robin Hood, Now, by my fay! said jolly Robin, Methought they did me beat and bind, And took my bow me fro; Shaws, little woods-spinnies. Sheen, shining. Shradds, swards-i. e. grass.-PERCY. Shrobbs, i. e. shrubs.-RITSON. + The golden ouzle, a bird of the thrush kind.-Glossary to Chaucer.PERCY. If I be Robin alive in this land, Swevens are swift, master, quoth John, Busk ye, bown ye, my merry men all, Then they cast on their gowns of green, Until they came to the merry green wood, There were they 'ware of a wight yeoman, A sword and a dagger he wore by his side, And he was clad in his capull-hide, Top, and tail, and mane. * Stand you still, master, quoth little John, Under this tree so green, And I will go to yon wight yeoman, Ah! John, by me thou settest no store, Horse-hide.-PERCY. + Wonder.-PERCY. |