Note 166 — ROBIN HOOD. Part I.
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119 The irregularity or defect of the versification, in this and similar passages, is probably owing to the loss of a line.
120 This seems to have been, and, in many parts, is still, the name generally used by the vulgar for Erming Street. The course of the real Watling Street was from Dover to Chester.
The Sayles appears to be some place in the neighbourhood of Barnsdale, but no mention of it has elsewhere occurred: though, it is believed, there is a field so called not far from Doncaster.
121 All his. PCC.
122 So R. [Rastall.] all thre. W. C. [de Worde and Copland.]
123 This. R. that. W. C.
124 Ere. R.
125 To pay. R. pay. W. C.
126 Robyn. R. Robyn Hoode. W. C.
127 Two yere. R.
128 Knowe. OCC.
129 It may amende. OCC.
130 Lancasesshyre. R.
131 Not. W. C.
132 By. W. C.
133 So R. knowe me. W. C.
134 The fragment of Rastall’s edition ends here.
135 Also. PCC.
136 Wyme. PCC.
137 i.e. by so many score to the hundred, or three hundred for one. It is certainly a very hyperbolical expression: but he measures the cloth in the same way.
138 Helpe. W. wrappe. C.
139 Leue. W. lende. C.
140 The prior, in an abbey, was the officer immediately under the abbot; in priories and conventual cathedrals he was the superior.
141 This was a “S. Richard, king and confessour, sonne to Lotharius king of Kent, who, for the love of Christ, taking upon him a long peregrination, went to Rome for devotion to that sea, and in his way homward, died at Luca, about the year of Christ, seaven hundred and fifty, where his body is kept untill this day with great veneration, in the oratory and chappell of S. Frigidian, and adorned with an epitaph both in verse and prose” (English Martyrologe, 1608).
There were other saints of the same name, as Richard de la Wich, bishop of Chichester, canonised in 1262; and Richard, bishop of St. Andrews in Calabria. See Drayton’s Polyolbion, song 24.
142 Leue. W. Sende us. C.
143 Loke. W. C.
144 Grete. W. get. C.
145 Thou. PCC.
146 Uterysdale. O. CC. Wierysdale is the name of a forest in Lancashire: though it appears, in a subsequent part of this poem, that the knight’s castle was in Nottinghamshire.
147 Sute. C.
148 I up pyght. W. up ypyght. C.
149 Fere. W. in fere. C.
150 Shote. W.
151 He sleste (sliced?) W.
152 Thou wast. C. wast thou. Wh.
153 Ge. W. f. God.
154 i.e. while a man might have walked two miles and upward.
155 Hyed, C.
156 Whyle. W.
157 Syght. W. sightes. C.
158 Wo the worth. W.
159 Such. W.
160 He. Old copies.
161 You. W. Make you yonder preste. C.
162 Set. ‘shet’?
163 Yemen. C.
164 Lytell Johan, O. CC.
165 Them. O. CC.
166 To. W.
167 Nade. W. not in C.
168 Eyght pounde. W.
169 To. W.
170 Corser. W. courser. C.
171 Gayne. W.
172
But take not a grefe, sayd the knyght,
That I have be so longe. O. CC.
173 I twyse. W.
174 Thi trusty. C.
175 This care. W.
176 Syt. W.
177
And that shoteth al ther best. W.
And they that shote al of the best. C.
178 Al theyre. W. al of the. C.
179 They slist. W. he clefte. C.
180 Belyve. C.
181 That I after eate no bread. C.
182 Thou. W.
183 The bydde. OCC.
184 Honde and fote. W. foote and hande. C.
185 That he had Robyn Hode. W.
186 God the good Robyn. W.
187 Lady. W.
188 Late.
189 Shamly I slayne be. W.
190 For soth as I the say. W.
191 Your. W. You may them over take. C.
192 Shall he never in grene wode be Nor longer dwell with me. W.
193 It. W.
194 At. W. That. C.—good] boote. Wh.
195 Hoode. W. bande. C.
196 And yf. W.
197 Your. OCC.
198 Under the grene wode tre. W.
199 This saint is also mentioned by Chaucer in the Sompnour’s tale; by Spenser, in his 5th eclogue; in the Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601; and in one of Ophelia’s songs in Hamlet. (See a note upon this last passage in the edition of 1793, vol. xv. p. 163.) Mr. Steevens’s assertion that “Saint Charity is a known saint among the Roman Catholics,” may be supported by infallible authority. “We read,” says Dr. Douglas, “in the Martyrology on the first of August—Romæ passio sanctarum virginum, Fidei, Spei, et Charitatis, quæ sub Hadriano principe martyris coronam adeptæ sunt” (Criterion, p. 68). Pierre Nadal, commonly called Petrus de Natalibus, in his Catalogus Sanctorum, has given the history of the saints Faith, Hope, and Charity, the daughters of St. Sophia (or Wisdom). Nothing can be too absurd for superstition.
200 I vouche it halfe on the. W.
201 Seale. C.
202 And browne. W.
203 A wys, W. For that shall be his fyne. C.
204 Good whyte. W. lilly white. C.
205 And therto sent I me. W.
206 Good. OCC.
207 Another had full sone. W.
208 Lefte never one. W.
209 Lughe. W.
210 Ferre. W.
211 Commended for. C.
212 Donkesley. W.
213 The. OCC.
214 Ye.
215 Lefe.
216 Syde.
217 Syde.
218 Hys.
219 Leffe.
220 A bad hem stond stell.
221 The potter.
222 Leppyd.
223 Felow he.
224 A.
225 Seyde hels.
226 Went yemen.
227 Thes.
228 Lytl.
229 Yemerey.
230 Grat.
231 Yede.
232 This stanza is misplaced in the MS., coming after the first verse at top of page.
233 Say.
234 Seyde sche s’ than.
235 The.
236 He.
237 Loseth.
238 To.
239 These two lines are transposed in the MS.
240 Pottys the.
241 Bolt yt.
242 Senyst.
243 Goe.
244 That Robyng gaffe me.
245 Mey they.
246 Se.
247 He.
248 Her.
249 For.
250 How haffe.
251 I leyty.
252 He had west.
253 That ye be.
254 y.
255 The MS. repeats this line after the following: Het ambellet be mey sey.
256 Bowhes.
257 Be ther.
258 Wher’e.
259 Closd. We might read: And clos’d were [baith] his een.
260 The preceding lines of this stanza are wanting in the original.
261 Gave, begack.
262 Yeen.
263 Spok.
264 Half.
265 Bound.
266 Bag.
267 Cloath.
268 Thou.
269 Speed.
270 Cloaths.
271 “It should perhaps be swards, i.e. the surface of the ground, viz. ‘when the fields are in their beauty.’”—PERCY. Rather shrobbes (shrubs). The plural of sward was never used by any writer whatever. For shaws the MS. has shales.
272 Dr. Percy, by the marks he has bestowed on this line, seems to consider it as the yeoman’s reply; but it seems rather a repetition of Robin’s complimentary address.
273 This in the three former editions of the “Reliques” is improperly altered to ‘but.’
274 So, according to Percy, reads his MS. He has altered it to ‘backward.’
275 The title of SIR, Dr. Percy says, was not formerly peculiar to knights; it was given to priests, and sometimes to very inferior personages. If the text did not seem to be in favour of the latter part of this assertion, one might reasonably question its truth. Another instance, at least, it is believed, admitting this to be one, which is by no means certain, cannot be produced.
276 Sic PC. quere the MS.
277 An absurd mistake, scarcely worth notice in this place, and which the reader will have it in his own power to correct.
278 Our.
279 There is no authority for imputing this execrable practice to our hero or his companions, in any one single instance. If, however, the lex talionis were at all justifiable, they certainly had sufficient provocation to exercise it—not, indeed, upon the clergy, in particular, but upon the king, his ministers, judges, and nobles. “The ancient punishment for killing the king’s deer,” says Dr. Percy, “was loss of eyes and castration: a punishment far worse than death!”
280 i.e. than he could otherwise have been.