Volume 3 — 150 ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN
Reading edition
Wood, 401, leaf 21 b.
Ritson, Robin Hood, 1795, II, 157, from Wood’s copy. In none of the garlands.
The Earl of Huntington, alias Robin Hood, is forced by fortune’s spite to part from his love Marian, and take to the green wood. Marian dresses herself “like a page,” and, armed with bow, sword, and buckler, goes in quest of Robin. Both being disguised, neither recognizes the other until they have had an hour at swords, when Robin Hood, who has lost some blood, calls to his antagonist to give over and join his band. Marian knows his voice, and discovers herself. A banquet follows, and Marian remains in the wood.
Though Maid Marian and Robin Hood had perhaps been paired in popular sports, no one thought of putting more of her than her name into a ballad, until one S. S. (so the broadside is signed) composed this foolish ditty. The bare name of Maid Marian occurs in No 145 A, 94 and in No 147, 14.
Even in Barclay’s fourth eclogue, written not long after 1500, where, according to Ritson,[119] the earliest notice of Maid Marian occurs, and where, he says, “she is evidently connected with Robin Hood,” the two are really kept distinct; for the lusty Codrus in that eclogue wishes to hear “some mery fit of Maide Marion, or els of Robin Hood.”
In Munday’s play of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, Matilda, otherwise Marian, daughter to Lord Lacy, accompanies Earl Robert to Sherwood, upon his being outlawed for debt the very day of their troth-plight. There she lives a spotless maiden, awaiting the time when the outlawry shall be repealed and Robin may legally take her to wife. Neither the author of the play nor that of the ballad was, so far as is known, repeating any popular tradition.
The ordinary partner of Maid Marian is Friar Tuck, not Robin Hood. There is no ground for supposing that there ever were songs or tales about the Maid and Friar, notwithstanding what is cursorily said by one of the characters in Peele’s Edward I:
Why so, I see, my mates, of old
All were not lies that beldames told
Of Robin Hood and Little John,
Friar Tuck and Maid Marian.
ed. Dyce, I, 133.
Translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 72, Loève-Veimars, p. 208.
1
A Bonny fine maid of a noble degree,
With a hey down down a down down
Maid Marian calld by name,
Did live in the North, of excellent worth,
For she was a gallant dame.
2
For favour and face, and beauty most rare,
Queen Hellen shee did excell;
For Marian then was praisd of all men
That did in the country dwell.
3
’Twas neither Rosamond nor Jane Shore,
Whose beauty was clear and bright,
That could surpass this country lass,
Beloved of lord and knight.
4
The Earl of Huntington, nobly born,
That came of noble blood,
To Marian went, with a good intent,
By the name of Robin Hood.
5
With kisses sweet their red lips meet,
For shee and the earl did agree;
In every place, they kindly imbrace,
With love and sweet unity.
2196
But fortune bearing these lovers a spight,
That soon they were forced to part,
To the merry green wood then went Robin Hood,
With a sad and sorrowfull heart.
7
And Marian, poor soul, was troubled in mind,
For the absence of her friend;
With finger in eye, shee often did cry,
And his person did much comend.
8
Perplexed and vexed, and troubled in mind,
Shee drest her self like a page,
And ranged the wood to find Robin Hood,
The bravest of men in that age.
9
With quiver and bow, sword, buckler, and all,
Thus armed was Marian most bold,
Still wandering about to find Robin out,
Whose person was better then gold.
10
But Robin Hood, hee himself had disguisd,
And Marian was strangly attir’d,
That they provd foes, and so fell to blowes,
Whose vallour bold Robin admir’d.
11
They drew out their swords, and to cutting they went,
At least an hour or more,
That the blood ran apace from bold Robins face,
And Marian was wounded sore.
12
‘O hold thy hand, hold thy hand,’ said Robin Hood,
‘And thou shalt be one of my string,
To range in the wood with bold Robin Hood,
To hear the sweet nightingall sing.’
13
When Marian did hear the voice of her love,
Her self shee did quickly discover,
And with kisses sweet she did him greet,
Like to a most loyall lover.
14
When bold Robin Hood his Marian did see,
Good lord, what clipping was there!
With kind imbraces, and jobbing of faces,
Providing of gallant cheer.
15
For Little John took his bow in his hand,
And wandring in the wood,
To kill the deer, and make good chear,
For Marian and Robin Hood.
16
A stately banquet the[y] had full soon,
All in a shaded bower,
Where venison sweet they had to eat,
And were merry that present hour.
17
Great flaggons of wine were set on the board,
And merrily they drunk round
Their boules of sack, to strengthen the back,
Whilst their knees did touch the ground.
18
First Robin Hood began a health
To Marian his onely dear,
And his yeomen all, both comly and tall,
Did quickly bring up the rear.
19
For in a brave veine they tost off the[ir] bouls,
Whilst thus they did remain,
And every cup, as they drunk up,
They filled with speed again.
20
At last they ended their merryment,
And went to walk in the wood,
Where Little John and Maid Marian
Attended on bold Robin Hood.
21
In sollid content together they livd,
With all their yeomen gay;
They livd by their hands, without any lands,
And so they did many a day.
22
But now to conclude, an end I will make
In time, as I think it good,
For the people that dwell in the North can tell
Of Marian and bold Robin Hood.
A Famous Battle between Robin Hood and Maid Marian, declaring their Love, Life, and Liberty. Tune, Robin Hood Reviv’d.
No printer: black-letter. S. S. at the end.
111. out rheir.
191. vente.
213. there: wirhout.
A MS. copy in Percy’s papers has in 161 he had, and in 191, in a brave venie they tost off their bowles. It is barely possible that venie, which Ritson prints, may be right.
220