A Gest of Robyn Hode (also known as A Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode) is one of the earliest surviving texts of the Robin Hood tales. Written in late Middle English poetic verse, it is an early example of an English language ballad, in which the verses are grouped in quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme, also known as ballad stanzas. Gest, which means tale or adventure, is a compilation of various Robin Hood tales, arranged as a sequence of adventures involving the yeoman outlaws Robin Hood and Little John, the poor knight Sir Richard at the Lee, the greedy abbot of St Mary's Abbey, the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, and King Edward of England. The work survives in printed editions from the early 16th century, just some 30 years after the first printing press was brought to England. Its popularity is proven by the fact that portions of more than ten 16th- and 17th-century printed editions have been preserved. While the oldest surviving copies are from the early 16th century, many scholars believe that based on the style of writing, the work likely dates to the 15th century, perhaps even as early as 1400. The story itself is set somewhere from 1272 to 1483, during the reign of a King Edward; this contrasts with later works, which generally placed Robin Hood earlier in 1189–1216, during the reigns of Richard I of England and John, King of England.
Due to its length, popularity, and influence, A Gest of Robyn Hode is one of the fundamental building blocks of the Robin Hood tradition, and English outlaw literature in general. It established many of the most common motifs and characterizations seen in the legend. While it is not the oldest surviving work, it is the longest and most complete of the surviving early texts; the other oldest stories such as Robin Hood and the Monk are much shorter. Influential motifs seen in this story include Robin being a "Good Outlaw" who commits crimes, but while keeping to a strict moral code; Little John as Robin's loyal right-hand man; Robin being deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary as his personal patron saint; Robin helping the less fortunate while taking ironic punishment on the powerful and corrupt, including both the Sheriff and high-ranking church members; an archery contest that Robin wins; Robin's awkward relationship with the king, where he is ultimately loyal to the crown yet still an outlaw at heart; and Robin's death occurring only as a result of treachery and betrayal.
A Gest of Robyn Hood is divided into eight fyttes (sections) that tell interleaving stories of Robin and his band. Jess Bessinger Jr divided Gest into four tales based on the characters that feature in them, each with several episodes, although the beginning and end of a tale or episode does not always align with the fyttes. Bessinger's divisions are as follows:[1]
Quotes from the text have been given with modern spelling.
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Robin Hood, a good yeoman and courteous outlaw, has heard 3 masses this morning: one to honour God the Father; one to honour the Holy Ghost; and one to honour the Virgin Mary, for whom he has a deep devotion. He has fasted since midnight, and Little John, also a good yeoman, suggests he should eat soon. Robin declines to dine without a guest to pay for the feast. He sends his men to find one and reminds them to do no harm to farmers, yeomen or gentlemen, but to rob bishops, archbishops and the Sheriff of Nottingham should they encounter them. Little John, Much the Miller's son and William Scarlock leave to search for a guest.
They see a knight on horseback in a back street in Barnsdale. He looks forlorn, slouched over in his saddle, his face careworn and streaked with tears. Little John approaches the Sorrowful Knight, genuflects, and welcomes him to the forest, saying his Master Robin Hood is waiting dinner for him. The Knight remarks "He is good yeoman ... /Of him I have heard much good."[2]: lines 103-104 The Knight leaves with the outlaws.
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When Robin Hood sees the Sorrowful Knight, he pushes back his hood, and genuflects to him. They all wash, and sit down to a fine feast. They enjoy plenty of bread and wine, along with deer sweatbreads, pheasants, swans, and other river birds. The Knight remarks that he had not had such a dinner for weeks, and should he pass through this way again, he would return the favour. Robin retorts that the Knight should pay before he leaves, as it is not proper for a yeoman to pay for a knight's feast. The Sorrowful Knight says he has only 10 shillings, and is embarrassed to offer such a small amount. Little John checks his baggage, and verifies the Sorrowful Knight is truthful.
Robin remarks on the Sorrowful Knight's threadbare clothing, and inquires about his situation. the Sorrowful Knight responds that his ancestors have been knights for 100 years but now he is disgraced, because his son and heir killed a knight of Lancaster. To redeem him, the Sorrowful Knight borrowed 400 pounds from the Rich Abbot of St Mary's, using his lands as collateral. The loan is now due, but he has only 10 shillings, so his lands will be seized by the Abbot. Robin asks if he had any friends. The Knight replies that he had plenty when he was rich, but none that he is poor. Robin then asks if he has anybody who could offer collateral. The Knight replied that he had none "But if it be Our dear Lady;/She failed me never or this day."[2]: lines 259-60 Robin, who has a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary, declares that she is the best collateral in all of England. He instructs Little John to fetch 400 pounds from their treasure chest, and pay the Knight. Emboldened by Robin's words, Little John suggests new livery in Robin's colours of scarlet and green, and a new horse. Robin offers a grey courser with a new saddle; after all, he says, the Knight is the Virgin Mary's messenger. Much suggests a good palfrey, Scarlock suggests new boots, and Little John suggests shining spurs. Robin adds that a knight can not ride alone, and offers Little John as a companion.[2]: lines 1-324 "In a yeoman's stead he may thee stand,/If thou great need have."[2]: lines 323-24
The scene switches to York, where the monks of St Mary's Abbey are sitting down to dinner. The Abbot, the Prior, the Chief Steward, the Sheriff of Yorkshire, and the county Justice are discussing the Knight whose debt of 400 pounds is due today. The Prior observes that if it was him, he would pay 100 pounds now and the rest later. The Abbot remarks that the Knight is suffering hunger and cold while serving England's cause overseas. The Prior admonishes the Abbot that, in that case, it would pitiful to take his land; but such a grievous wrong would not bother the Abbot's conscience at all. The Abbot snaps back at the Prior, telling him he's always getting in the way. The "fat-headed"[line 363] Chief Steward suggests that the Knight is either dead or hanged. The county Justice offers his opinion that the Knight will not come. They are all disappointed when the Knight appears at the gate.
The Knight genuflects and salutes them all "great and small"[2]: line 408 . Upset at the Knight's appearance in the Abbey hall, the Abbot skips the customary courtesies and demands if he brought the Abbot's money. Not one penny, the Knight calmly replies. The Abbot snaps back, then why are you here? The Knight answers that he is here to beg for more time. The county Justice sharply interrupts, your time is up and your land is forfeit. Still on one knee, the Knight begs the Justice to "be my frende"[2]: line 423 . The Justice responds that he can not; he is working on retainer from the Abbot. The Knight then looks to the Sheriff, who also refuses to aid the Knight. Finally the Knight offers his services as the Abbot's Knight until the debt is paid. The Abbot rebukes the Knight's offer. "'Out,' he said, 'thou false knight,/Speed thee out of my hall!'"[2]: lines 451-2 The Knight calls the Abbot a liar, and stands up.
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As the Knight approaches, the Justice asks the Abbot how much would he give the Knight to purchase the land outright. 100 pounds is the Abbot's reply; make it 200, insists the Justice. The Knight strides to the Abbot's table, and shakes Robin's 400 pounds out of the bag and onto the table. The Abbot is stunned. He tells the Justice to take the money as an additional retainer. The Justice refuses. The Knight then announces to everyone in the hall that he has paid his debt; his land is his once more. The Knight leaves, now carefree. He travels home with a light heart, singing. His worried wife meets him at the gate to Wyresdale. Be happy, my wife, says the Knight, and pray for Robin Hood; without his kindness, we would be beggars now.
Over the next year the Knight accumulates the 400 pounds to repay Robin Hood. He also purchases 100 bows, 100 bundles of arrows, 100 horses, and hires 100 men clothed in red and white clothing. On the day his debt is due, the Knight and his men head for Barnesdale. At Wentbridge, they pass a fair where a stranger has won the wrestling match. The yeoman is in danger of being killed by the crowd. Remembering how Robin treated him, he orders his company to surround the yeoman, shouting that no harm would befall him. He purchases a cask of wine and breaks it open so that all may drink. But the Knight and his company stay until the fair is done to ensure the yeoman's safety. In the meantime, Robin Hood is waiting under the tree in the greenwood.[2]: lines 325-572
It is now autumn.[2]: line 704 Little John is still the Knight's Yeoman, and joins other young men in longbow target practice. Three times Little John shoots; three times he "split the wand"[2]: line 582 . The Sheriff of Nottingham is impressed. He approaches Little John, asking his name and birthplace. Little John replies, Reynold Greenleaf of Holderness. The Sheriff then asks Little John to work for him. Only if the Sheriff obtains a leave of absence from the Knight, Little John advises. The Knight agrees, and Little John rides off on one of the Sheriff's good strong horses.
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One day the Sheriff goes hunting and leaves Little John behind. It is now past noon, and Little John has not eaten. Little John asks the steward for dinner, but is told not until the Sheriff comes home. Little John then threatens the butler, and gives him a strong blow to his back. The butler runs to the pantry and shuts the door. Little John kicks the door open and drinks more than his share of the ale and wine.
The Sheriff's Cook, a bold stout man, confronts Little John. The Cook delivers three strong blows to Little John, who vows that he won't leave until he pays the Cook back. They both draw swords and fight for an hour, with neither gaining the advantage. Little John acknowledges that the Cook is the best swordsman he has ever seen; if he is as good with the bow, the Cook could join with Robin Hood. The Cook agrees. Little John and the Cook sit down to a fine dinner. Then they break the lock on the Sheriff's treasury and steal all the silver dinnerware plus 300 pounds in coin. They leave immediately to meet Robin Hood.
After they greet each other, Robin Hood inquires as who is "that fair yeoman"[2]: line 709 accompanying Little John, and what is the news from Nottingham. Little John responds that the proud Sheriff sends his greetings, his Cook, his silver tableware, and 300 pounds in coin. Robin replies sarcastically that it wasn't because of the Sheriff's generosity. Little John has a sudden thought to trick the Sheriff. He runs 5 miles to meet the Sheriff, hunting with his hounds. Where have you been, demands the Sheriff. In this forest, replies Little John, I have seen a green hart, with a herd of 140 deer. The Sheriff exclaims, that would be a sight to see! Then quickly follow me, says Little John. When they meet Robin and his 140 men, Little John announces that here is the master hart and his herd of deer! The Sheriff is amazed by how Little John has betrayed him. It's your fault, says Little John, I never got my dinner at your place.
The Sheriff sits down to dinner, and is horrified when he realizes he is eating from his own silver tableware. Robin says, consider it charity, and for Little John's sake, I grant you your life. When dinner was done, Robin tells Little John to strip the Sheriff of his fur-lined mantle and all his fine clothes, and wrap him in a green mantle. Robin then orders the Sheriff's men to do likewise, and lie down next to the Sheriff. All night they lie on the cold ground in only their breeches, shirts, and the green mantles. The next morning, the Sheriff complains about his stiff muscles. Don't complain, replies Robin, this is how we live; he continues, for the next year, I will teach you how to live as an outlaw. The Sheriff grumbles, not for all the gold in England. He pleads with Robin to let him go. Robin demands that he swear an oath on Robin's sword that he will never again harm Robin or any of his men. The Sheriff swears his oath, and leaves the greenwood.[2]: lines 573-816
It is now one year later. The scene is Robin Hood and Little John in the greenwood. Little John suggests that it is time for dinner, but Robin declines. He fears the Virgin Mary is angry with him, since the Knight has not yet arrived. Little John consoles him, saying that the sun has not yet set, and the Knight is true to his word. Robin instructs Little John to take Much and William Scarlok, and search for an "unknown guest"[line ??]. Irritated, Little John takes up his bow and his sword to do Robin's bidding.
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On the highway in Barnesdale they spot a monk on a good palfrey. Little John remarks to Much, here is our pay. The monk is being escorted by 52 men and seven pack horses. Little John tells his companions to prepare for an ambush. He aims his arrow at the monk, ordering him to stop where he is. Calling him a churlish monk, Little John accuses the Monk of angering his master, Robin Hood. ""He is a strong thief," said the monk,/"Of him heard I never good.""[2]: lines 883-4 . Much lets fly an arrow which barely misses the Monk's chest, and he quickly dismounts. All the attendants turn and flee, leaving only a little page and a groom with the pack horses.
Little John brings the Monk to the huntsman's hut. Robin Hood lowers his hood, but the uncourteous Monk does not. Robin asks Little John how many men the monk had. 52 men, is his answer. Blow the horn, orders Robin. 140 men, dressed in striped scarlet, answer the call to run down the Monk's attendants. Robin & Little John force the Monk to wash up for dinner, and they serve him at the table. While he is eating, Robin asks the Monk, to which abbey do you belong & what office do you hold. I am the Chief Steward of St Mary's Abbey, answers the Monk.
Robin Hood is still worried that the Virgin Mary is angry with him, since the Knight has not yet appeared. Little John tells Robin not to worry, the Monk has brought the money; he is from her abbey. Robin is not consoled. She was my collateral for a loan I made to the Knight, he says. Speaking to the Monk, Robin asks to see the silver - if he brought it. The Monk swears at Robin, saying he knows nothing of this loan. Robin Hood retorts: God is righteous, and so is the Virgin Mary, you are to blame; you are her servant, and her messenger. How much money do you carry, Robin Hood demands of the Monk. 20 marks of silver, he replies. Robin orders Little John to check the Monk's baggage.
After laying out the contents of the Monk's purse, Little John hurries back to Robin Hood. The Virgin Mary has doubled your money, he declares. Robin is elated. They all drink to her honour. Curious at what is in the packhorses, Robin again asks Little John to search again. The Monk protests strenuously, mounts his horse, and rides off.[2]: lines 817-1040
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It is still daylight when the Knight rides into Barnesdale, and sees Robin Hood standing under the greenwood tree. The Knight dismounts, lowers his hood, and genuflects to Robin. Robin warmly welcomes him, and asks why he is so late. The Knight replies that he stopped to help a poor yeoman in trouble. In that case, rejoins Robin, for helping a good yeoman, I am your friend. The Knight offers the 400 pounds, and 20 marks more for Robin's courtesy. He refuses, saying the money was already delivered by the Monk of St Mary's. But the bows and arrows I brought are a poor payment, says the Knight. Robin sends Little John to retrieve 400 pounds of the Monk's money, and then hands it to the Knight. Buy a horse and a good harness, he says, get some new clothing. And he adds, if ever you need spending money, come see me.[2]: lines 1041-1120
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The Sheriff of Nottingham announces an archery contest for all the best archers of the North. The prize will be an arrow with a head and feathers of red gold, and a shaft of white silver. Upon hearing of the contest, Robin Hood calls his fellowship together. He orders that only six of his men shoot with him; the rest, with arrows nocked, are to keep watch on the Sheriff's men.
Three times Robin shoots, and three times he splits the wand. But so did good Gilberte with the White Hand. The two shoot again, but Robin is best, and wins the prize. The outlaws begin their return to the greenwood, but the fair-goers shout and blow horns. The Sheriff's men loose a hail of arrows, and Robin shouts curses at the Sheriff for breaking his pledge. Many of the fellowship are wounded, including Little John, who took an arrow to his knee. Little John begs Robin not to let the Sheriff take him alive - he tells Robin to inflict mortal wounds to his head. Robin replies, not for all the gold in England! God forbid that you should die, cries Much, and hefts Little John onto his back.
Not far away is the castle of Sir Richard at the Lee, the Sorrowful Knight. Immediately Sir Richard takes in Robin and his men. He orders the gates be shut, the bridge be drawn up, and the walls manned.[2]: lines 1121-1264
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The High Sheriff of Nottingham raises a large army from around the countryside to besiege Sir Richard's castle. Traitorous Knight, the proud Sheriff shouts to Sir Richard, you harbor the King's enemy against the law. The Knight courteously agrees that he is doing so. Sir Richard adds, tell our King what has happened, and see what he says.
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The Sheriff rides to London, and tells the King that Sir Richard is supporting the outlaw band. Furthermore, he tells the King, Sir Richard is using the outlaws to set himself up as lord of the north land. The King said he would be in Nottingham in two weeks, and that the Sheriff is to gather more archers from all over the countryside. In the meantime, Robin Hood returns to the greenwood, where Little John later joins him after his knee heals.
Having missed his chance to capture Robin, the Sheriff lies in wait to capture Sir Richard instead. He finally overcomes the gentle Knight as he is hawking by the river, and takes him to Nottingham. When Sir Richard's wife is told what has happened, she rides out to the greenwood to find Robin. For Our dear Lady's sake, she implores Robin, don't let my husband be killed for supporting you. Who took your lord, asks Robin. The Sheriff, she replies, and they are not more than three miles from here. Robin quickly gathers his men and they run towards Nottingham.
The fellowship catches up with the Sheriff. Robin stops the Sheriff, asking about the news from the King. Robin then quickly draws his bow, and lets loose an arrow that knocks the Sheriff off his horse. Before the Sheriff can rise, Robin beheads him with his sword. Lie there, proud Sheriff, taunts Robin, no man could trust you while you were alive.[2]: lines 1265-1412
The rest of the fellowship attack the Sheriff's men and cut them down. Robin leaps to Sir Richard's side, cuts his bonds, and hands him a bow. Come to the greenwood with me, Robin orders, until I can get us "... grace/Of Edward, our comely king."[2]: lines 1411-12
The King arrives at Nottingham and asks about Robin Hood and Sir Richard. Hearing what has happened, he seizes the Knight's lands, and searches for Robin throughout Lancashire. Reaching Plompton Park, he notices that there are far fewer deer than usual. Cursing Robin Hood, the King orders Robin to be brought before him, and that anyone who brings him the head of Sir Richard would receive his lands. Then an old knight advises, as long as Robin Hood lives, no man will hold Sir Richard's lands. Six months later, one of the King's royal foresters approaches the King, suggesting a subterfuge to catch Robin. You and five men should dress as monks, he said, and I will lead you into the forest; then you will meet Robin Hood. The King wears a broad abbot's hat to conceal his face, and goes into the forest.
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They soon meet Robin, standing in the road along with many of his men. Robin Hood grabs the reins of the King's horse. Sir Abbot, Robin addresses the disguised King, we are but poor yeomen of the forest who live by the King's deer, share with us some of your wealth as an act of charity. The disguised King replies he has only 40 pounds, having spent much during the last two weeks entertaining the King and his lords. If I had 100 pounds, he continues, I would give you half. Robin takes the 40 pounds, counts out 20 pounds, and returns 20 pounds to the disguised King. Our great king bids you come to Nottingham, says the disguised King, and shows Robin the royal seal. Robin immediately genuflects as he says, "I love no man in all the world/ So well as I do my king;/ Welcome is my lord's seal;"[2]: lines 1541-43 In honour of the King, Robin invites the disguised King to dinner. Robin blows his horn to assemble the fellowship, who genuflect around him. The disguised King is surprised, realizing that Robin's men are more willing to answer his call than the royal men are to answer the King's call. Quickly the feast is prepared, with Robin and Little John waiting on the disguised King themselves. The disguised King is treated to fat venison, white bread, red wine, and ale.
After dinner, Robin arranges an archery demonstration. The disguised King remarks that the targets were too far away. Robin orders, anyone who misses the target would forfeit his arrows and endure a slap on his face from me. Twice Robin shoots, and twice he splits the wand. On the third attempt, Robin misses, and his men taunt him. Robin approaches the disguised King, offers his arrows, and says he is ready for his slap. The disguised King declines, saying it is against the rules of his order. Do it, declares Robin. The disguised King rolls up his sleeve and deals a resounding slap that knocks Robin to the ground. The disguised King bends over to help Robin up, and as he does so, Robin looks intently into the King's face. Noticing Robin's reaction, Sir Richard does the same. Then both of them genuflect to their King. Robin asks mercy for his men, which the King grants. The King then invites Robin to join Edward's royal court. Only if I can bring my men with me, replies Robin.[2]: lines 1413-1668
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In the first section, the King asks if Robin has any green cloth so he and his men can exchange their black cowls for ones of Lincoln green. Back to Nottingham, the King commands. With feasting, drinking, and singing, the King welcomes Robin and his men into his service, and restores Sir Richard's lands.
Robin and his men spend the next year in the royal court. Robin has spent all his wealth, as well as the money meant for his men. Now only Little John and Scathelock remain. One day, while watching some young men at target practice, he becomes homesick. Robin asks the King for leave to make a pilgrimage to his chapel of Mary Magdalene in Barnsdale. The King grants him seven days.
When he reaches the greenwood with the birds merrily singing. He shoots a hart, and blows his horn. All the outlaws in the forest recognize Robin's horn and come running. They push back their hoods and genuflect, welcoming Robin back. There he remains for twenty-two years.[2]: lines 1669-1800
Years later, Robin has a kinswoman who was Prioress of Kirkley. She and her lover, Sir Roger of Doncaster, are plotting to kill Robin. Since the Prioress is skilled in the art of blood-letting, she lets Robin slowly bleed to death when he comes to Kirkley for treatment.[2]: lines 1801-24 The tale ends with a prayer: "Christ have mercy on his soul,/.../For he was a good outlaw,/And did poor men much good."[2]: lines 1821, 1823-4
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See also: Robin Hood § Associated locations, and Topographical areas of Yorkshire |
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The place names mentioned in Gest locate Robin Hood in the West Riding of Yorkshire: Blyth; Doncaster; St Mary Magdalene Church at Campsall; and Kirklees Abbey. The cities of York, Lancaster, and Nottingham, as well as the Knight's castle at Wyresdale, are also mentioned. This area is famous for its wide river valleys, and the eastern foothills of the South Pennines, with its numerous limestone caves where outlaws could hide. The greenwood of Barnsdale Forest is Robin's home; "Robyn stood in Barnesdale/And leaned him to a tree,"[2]: lines 9-10 is how the tale of the Sorrowful Knight opens.
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See also: History of printing § European movable type (1439), and Printing press |
A Gest of Robin Hode is considered as one of the three oldest Robin Hood tales. The other two are Robin Hood and the Monk (Child 119) and Robin Hood and the Potter (Child 121). Both of these latter tales survive as manuscripts dated to the second half of the 15th century; however, there are no surviving manuscripts of Gest.[3] The earliest text fragments for Gest are from about a dozen printed editions dated to the 16th and 17th centuries.[4]: ?? To identify the most important editions, Child labeled them as a through g. Texts a through e are referred to as the early texts, and texts f and g are called the later texts.[5] Of interest to linguists and historians is that the later texts replaced some of the obsolete words of the early texts in order to make Gest more understandable to the audiences of the time.[6]: 40 [5][6]: 39 Since Child's time, more editions have been identified by researchers.
John Maddicott has remarked on the lack of variation between the two earliest texts: text a and text b. He interpreted this lack of variation to a standard work being available prior to the printed editions.[7]
Also known as the Lettersnijder edition, it is attributed to Jan van Doesbroch in Antwerp c. 1510. Although it contains only about 200 of the total 456 quatrains, it is considered the most authentic version of the text, due to the linguistic archaisms in the text.[5] It is housed at the National Library of Scotland.
Text a is part of an eleven-text volume known as the Chapman and Myllar prints.[8] However, only nine texts in the volume were actually printed by Chapman and Myllar. Text a was one of the two texts which were not. According to the National Library of Scotland, the volume was presented to the Advocates Library sometime before August 1788 by John Alston of Glasgow. The binding was not sturdy, being made of parchment, which explains why so many pages of text a are lost. (Text a being the last work in the volume.) Sometime between 1798 and 1808 the volume was rebound in London by Charles Hering.[9]
The page illustration shown at the top of this article shows the first page of text a.[10] The woodcut is almost identical to the Yeoman woodcut in Richard Pynson's edition of The Canterbury Tales. However, the typesetter did not leave enough room for the woodcut, and had to reset the first 1-1/2 pages. The typesetter resorted to using abbreviations and run-on sentences to make everything fit.[4]: 57
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This edition is nearly complete, and may be older than text a. It was used as the base text by Ritson and Gutch. Modern scholars, such as Child, Dobson and Taylor, Knight, and Ohlgren consider it to contain more errors, so they use text a and filled in from text b.[5] It is housed at Cambridge University Library.
The edition's date is determined from the type fonts used, and the printer's device on the last page.[4]: 89
Individual pages which are in poor condition. They are housed at the Bodleian Library.
Entitled A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode. it was printed in London by William Copeland no earlier than 1548. It is housed at the British Museum.
Entitled A Merry Gest of Robin Hood. it was printed in London for Edward White, and is undated. It is housed at the Bodleian Library.
Entitled A Lytell Geste. This edition survives as three sets of fragments:[4]: 45
Entitled A Lytell Geste and printed in York sometime prior to 1509. The only surviving leaf is one of the Douce Fragments (e.12). Hugo Goes worked with one of de Worde's assistants, Henry Watson. When de Worde moved his business to Fleet Street after 1500, Goes acquired some of his fonts before moving to York to start his own business.[4]: 157-8
Entitled A Lytell Geste. The surviving fragments are four imperfect leaves attached to paper binding strips (Douce fragment f.1). The attribution to Notary is confirmed by the size and style of the type fonts; he was the only London printer to use 92 mm.[4]: 149-50
A single leaf fragment of waste print used as spine support for a volume printed in London by John Wolfe in 1584.
It is attributed to Copeland based upon the type font. The date is estimated from the language differences from his 1560 edition.[4]: 239-40 It is housed at the Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford.
Entitled A Merry Iest of Robin Hood, and printed in London for Edward White, bookseller, c. 1594. The printer is thought to have been Edward Allde. Anthony Munday, author of the Robin Hood plays, was apprenticed to Allde. The text is closely based upon William Copeland's edition, however, the spelling was updated and punctuation was introduced.[4]: 245–7 It is housed at the Chaplin Library, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Gest was studied by William Hall Clawson in 1909.[11] Clawson was a student of F. J. Child's successor, George Lyman Kittredge, and his dissertation on Gest expanded on Child's introduction. In 1968, medievalist D. C. Fowler published A Literary History of the Popular Ballad.[12] Fowler was one of the first to advocate the study of the English and Scottish ballads relative to their historical time and place, rather than simply within the classification of the Child anthology.[12]: 3,4 In 1974, J. B. Bessinger Jr attempted to extend Clawson and incorporate Fowler's proposal that Gest was a product of 15th-century minstrels.[12]: 43 One of Bessinger's contributions was a narrative schematic that refined Child's "3-ply web" into three tales of nine episodes distributed among eight fyttes.[1]
In 1984, Douglas Gray, the first J. R. R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, considered the Robin Hood and Scottish Border ballads more as oral poems. He objected to the then-current definitions of a ballad as some ideal form, whose characteristics were distilled from the Child Ballads. When compared to "this notion of a 'pure ballad', the Robin Hood poems seem messy and anormalous", he contended.[13]: 9 Therefore, he titled his article The Robin Hood Poems,[13] and not The Robin Hood Ballads.
However, Gray admitted that the Robin Hood tales, like most popular literature, are sometimes regarded as "sub-literary material", containing formulaic language and a "thin texture", especially "when they are read on the printed page".[13]: 4 Additionally, he argued, that since Child had grouped all the Robin Hood 'ballads' together, some literary studies had "rashly based themselves on all the Robin Hood ballads in the collection"[13]: 9 , instead of discarding those of dubious value. J. R. Maddicott also recognized this issue, and argued that since so little is known about the origins of the ballads from the available early manuscripts and printed texts, internal evidence has to be used.[7]) Gray further contended that, as oral poetry, each poem should be judged as a performance. He agreed with Ruth Finnegan in considering the performance as "integral to the identity of the poem as actually realized".[13]: 10 In an oral performance, a skillful raconteur can draw his audience in, making them part of his performance; hence no two oral performances are identical.[13]: 10 Gray points out that one of the characteristics of Gest are scenes with rapid dialogue or conversations, in which the formulaic diction, limited vocabulary, and stereotyped expressions are artfully used to express emotion.[13]: 25 Such scenes lying dully on a page can spring into action when recited by one or two talented minstrels.
Gest is a compilation of many early Robin Hood tales, either in verse or prose, but most of them now lost.[14]: 25 [15]: 431 [3]: ?? They were woven together into a single narrative poem by an unknown poet. F. C. Child, arguing that there was only one poet, described the Gest poet as "a thoroughly congenial spirit."[6]: 49 W. H. Clawson considered him "to have been exceedingly skillful",[11]: 24 while J. B. Bessinger declared him as "original and transitional"[p 43]. Gray thought the weaving to have "been neatly done".[13]: 23 J. C. Holt implied that there were two poets: the original poet who compiled the First, Second, and Fourth Fyttes as a single poem; and another less skilled poet who compiled the Third and Fifth Fyttes into the work produced by the original poet.[14]: 22-25 Others, such as J. R. Maddicott,[7], have considered him as less than adequate. They point to a narrative that is not sequential (it jumps back and forth between the tales); the transitions between tales are not smooth; there are inconsistencies within each tale, and between the tales.
Child was one of the first to recognize that Gest contains ballads from two different traditions: the Barnsdale tradition (found in the First, Second, and Fourth Fyttes), and the Nottingham tradition (found in the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Fyttes).[6]: 51 Clawson then attempted to identify the source ballads.[11]: 125-7 J. C. Holt considers Clawson work as fundamental to a careful study of Gest, and admits there is no consensus on how many underlying tales were used, or which lines can be considered the work of the Gest poet. In contrast to Clawson, who struggled mightily to connect Gest with existing outlaw ballads, Holt's study indicated that none of the sources have survived, that the tales were not necessarily in verse form, and that the source tales come from several traditions.[14]: 36 Why the Gest poet used these particular tales to construct this epic-length poem is unknown.
The remainder of the First Fytte[2]: lines 245–324 [11]: 125 is based on a 'Miracle of the Virgin Mary' story. The 'Miracle' was a moral story often told during religious services, and these stories were very popular. They generally concerned the Virgin Mary (or any of the Saints) being invoked as surety for a loan. The most common ending of a Miracle described an actual miracle to repay the loan. There was also a humorous ending where the repayment money is taken from a person in a religious order who in some way represented the Virgin or Saint. In this ending, this person is regarded as the messenger sent by the Virgin or Saint to repay the debt.[11]: 25–38 The First Fytte ends with Robin Hood and his men outfitting the poor knight in a manner befitting a messenger of the Virgin Mary.[2]: lines 303–4
At the beginning of the Monk tale, there is another inconsistency. When first spotted by Little John, there were two monks.[2]: line 851 Later, at the feast, there is only one monk mentioned.[2]: lines 897–1040
Most of the main characters are described in 52 lines at the beginning of the poem.[2]: lines 1–20, 29–60 Thus the Gest poet immediately draws attention to the purpose of his work. Gest's scenes are constructed to show the difference in the behavior of good and wicked characters. Goodness (referred to as "Courtesy") is displayed as ethical or moral qualities, such as kindness, generosity, truthfulness, and personal loyalty. "Courtesy" (the word occurs 17 times in Gest) is the opposite of injustice.[13]: 30
See Historical Analysis section for a fuller description of yeoman as used in Gest.
This is the only time 'proud' is applied to Robin Hood; but it is applied to the Sheriff of Nottingham 20 times throughout the Gest. The word is being used in two different senses. When applied to the Sheriff, proud means 'haughty, arrogant'. When applied to Robin, proud means 'brave, bold, valiant', or 'noble in bearing or appearance'.[16]
In Middle English, courtesy meant 'refined, well-mannered, polite' and 'gracious, benevolent, generous, merciful'.[17] Robin repeatedly exhibits all these traits.
Robin hears three masses a day, and has a special devotion to the Virgin Mary. The latter is a strong motivator for him in Tale A.
Robin is able to impose a code of conduct upon his fellow outlaws. He insists that they can do "well enough"[2]: line 50 by not waylaying farmers, yeomen, or any knight or squire who is a "good fellow".[2]: line 55 He singles out bishops and archbishops for beatings. Robin has a particularly strong hostility for the Sheriff of Nottingham.
The remaining characters are described when they appear in the tale. Each character is described by one or more of their ethical or moral qualities. There are only three characters who are given a physical description.
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Main articles: Middle English and Middle English phonology |
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See also: Northumbrian Old English § History, Northumbrian dialect, and Yorkshire dialect |
Francis James Child was the first to look at Gest from a linguistic perspective. While compiling The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, he was in frequent contact with language scholars in England who were collecting quotations from Middle English texts for what would become the first volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary. These scholars, including Walter William Skeat, the leading philologist in England, would later publish A Concise Dictionary of Middle English,[18] and An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language.[19] It was Skeat who provided Child with transcriptions of the texts that appeared in Child's anthology. Skeat also was one of the first philologists to discuss English language dialects in English Dialects from the Eighth Century to the Present Day published in 1911.[20]
In his introduction to Gest, Child tried to argue that the references to Robin Hood in Piers Plowman and the Scottish chronicles indicated a date of composition for Gest as early as 1400, or even earlier. However, he was forced to conclude that "There are no firm grounds on which to base an opinion."[6]: 40 Child asserted that there were "A considerable number of Middle-English forms" present; he even constructed a partial listing of the words ending in '-e'. William Hall Clawson,[21] a doctoral student under Child's successor, George Lyman Kittredge, expanded Child's word list, and even calculated the final totals of how many times such words were used in each Fytte. Thus Clawson attempted to "prove clearly that it [Gest] extends back to a period ... antedating the year 1400."[11]: 4–6
A modern linguistic analysis of Gest was performed by Masa Ikegami in 1985.[22] He constructed multiple lines of linguistic evidence that Gest was written in a Northern or East Midlands dialect, most probably during the mid- to late-15th century. His evidence is based upon Gest's quatrain structure, its ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme, and its meter (rhythm pattern). The Gest meter can be summarized as:
This meter is illustrated in the following quatrain, which should be read aloud in order to hear the rhythm of the stressed syllables (in bold font):
Where we shall take, where we shall leave,
Where we shall a-bide be-hind;
Where we shall rob, where we shall reive,
Where we shall beat and bind.
— Gest of Robyn Hood,[2] lines 45–48 (modern spelling)
Irregular lines do occur, but they are limited, and only occur in the three-beat lines.[22]: 272–3
Modern linguists no longer accept the presence of final '-e' (now known as schwa) as evidence for composition prior to 1400. Ikegami provides a summary of other works known to have been composed in the 15th which contain the silent final '-e'.[22]: 271
The silent final '-e' does not have to be pronounced in Gest in order to support the meter (rhythm pattern). Ikegami uses the example of 'grene wode', which Modern English speakers pronounce as two syllables: 'green wood'. In Chaucer's time, the phrase would have been pronounced as four syllables: 'gre-ne wo-de', where the schwa was pronounced as the 'a' in sofa or the 'u' in lucky.[23] The phrase 'grene wode' occurs thirteen times in Gest, and the silent final '-e' never needs to be pronounced in order to "keep the beat".[22]: 271–2
As a replacement for the now-silent '-e', Ikegami points out that the Gest poet introduces a new phrase construct: adjective + adjective|noun + noun. Some examples (with the stressed syllables in bold font and in modern spelling) are:
The head and feathers of rich red gold (line 1149)
adj + adj + noun
The good white bread, the good red wine (line 1571)
adj + adj + noun adj + adj + noun
Thou art one of the best sword men (line 674)
adj + noun + noun
— Gest of Robyn Hood,[2] (modern spelling)
Ikegami remarks that no works prior to 1400 have this phrasing.[22]: 273-4 Rather, Gest's use of this phrasing is similar to that of The Floure and the Leafe, which is considered to have composed during the third quarter of the 15th century (c. 1450–1475).[22]: 279
The Gest poet uses several rhymes that only work if the modern 'long e' sound is used. Some examples, with only the rhyming words shown, follow:
be : yeomanry (lines 178, 180)
he : courtesy (lines 358, 360)
tree : company (lines 1226, 1228)
— Gest of Robyn Hood,[2] (modern spelling)
The modern 'long e' sound is considered to be one of the earliest changes associated with the Great Vowel Shift which began c. 1400.[22]: 275-6
This rhyme[2]: lines 1422, 1424 only works after c. 1400. It is also associated with the great vowel shift.[22]: 275
The linguistic research begun by Skeat and his colleagues (as published in their various Middle English dictionaries) has been continued by modern linguists. Between 1898 and 1905, Joseph Wright published the seminal English Dialect Dictionary, based upon data collected by the English Dialect Society. The famous Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961.[24] Therefore, linguists have as detailed an understanding of the various Middle English dialects as the surviving literature and native speakers allow. The evidence for a Northern or East Midland dialect within the very words of Gest relies on the observation that, prior to standardization of English language spelling, Middle English authors spelled words as they were pronounced (that is, phonetically). Thus the rhyme words in each quatrain are also very valuable in determining whether or not regional dialects can be identified in Gest. Some of Ikegami's findings are below.[22]: 276-8 [25]
Maurice Keen wrote The Outlaws of Medieval Legend in 1961, which compared the historical background of the Robin Hood ballads with other legendary and historical outlaw figures.[26] Over the next four decades, various historians contributed to the debate on which historical periods are depicted in the Robin Hood ballads. In 1968, D C Fowler published A Literary History of the Popular Ballad as a modern update to Child's Ballads.[27][12] He focused on the historical background of Gest and the earliest Robin Hood tales.[Note 1] Many of the Child Robin Hood ballads were composed later, some as late as the 17th century, and are not relevant to explorations of the 14th–16th century versions of the Robin Hood legend.
The linguistic analysis suggests that Gest was probably compiled c. 1450–1475. The literary analysis suggests that the component tales were written down prior to 1450 from earlier oral forms which no longer exist. Various linkages can be made between historical events and evidence from the 14th and 15th centuries and the society portrayed within the internal bounds of Gest, such as Robin's yeoman status as compared to other yeomen in the tales; which King Edward is referred to; references to changing feudal practices and the abuses of Late Medieval England; and the probable early audiences.
In 2013, Joseph Taylor, aware of Ikegami's linguistic analysis,[22] examined Gest as a northern text in the historical regional context of northern England.[28]: 313 Northeast England has a history of political, cultural, and military separateness from southern England since the Heptarchy, when it was the Kingdom of Northumbria, which was later invaded and settled by the Vikings as the Kingdom of Jorvik. After the Norman Conquest, the Earl of Northumbria and the prince-bishops of the County Palatine of Durham were given political and military power second only to the King in London. The strategic geographic location of the northern counties was formally recognized in 1249 under a treaty which established the Scottish Marches as a buffer zone between Scotland and England. Each of the six Marches (three English and three Scottish) were controlled by their own Wardens. Many of the English East Wardens were appointed from powerful regional families, such as the Percies, the Nevilles, and the Cliffords. The border conflicts meant money and power to these regional families. As "kings in the North",[28]: 316 they maintained private armies to control, as well as defend, England's border. The intermittent wars with Scotland also provided political leverage with the King in London, who fully realized that only the northern magnates could mobilize the necessary troops against Scotland — or against London.[28]: 316–7
This sense of separateness is reflected in the Gest in the way London is portrayed as the power base for the villainous Abbot of St Mary's and Sheriff of Nottingham (see here).
Parliament's rise in importance during the 14th century also provided the Northern magnates with a legitimate means to restrict royal power within their counties.[28]: 316–7
One important social change which occurred in response to the changes brought about by the climate, diseases, and military upheavals is the gradual change in the meaning of the term yeoman, which is used repeatedly in Gest. During the 14th and 15th centuries, between the time when the component tales were still in oral form and the time when Gest was compiled, the meaning of "yeoman" changed substantially.[29]: 52-3 Originally, "yeoman" was a rank of noble household service as well as the chivalric rank between page and squire. By the late 14th century, it was also used to refer to freeborn and free tenure smallholders. During the 15th century, it began to refer to the growing social category (referred to as a "middling sort"[29]: 55 ), consisting of the now land-wealthy commoner landowners and the land-poor younger sons of nobility. (Primogeniture dictated that only the eldest son could inherit the family estates.) This self-identification was re-inforced by the 1413 Statute of Additions under Henry V, in which those paying the polltax had to specify their status and occupation. Eventually, "yeoman" expanded to include husbandmen who practiced a trade or craft to supplement their farming income.[29]: 52-3 These shifts in meaning are evident in Gest when the component tales are considered separately from the narrative arc (see here).
Richard Almond and A. J. Pollard did a study of the earliest Robin Hood tales, including Gest, Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, and Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. To address this spectrum of possible meanings of 'yeoman' over the centuries, they proposed that, within Gest, the 'yeoman' Robin Hood has to be studied (1) separately from the minor characters called "yeoman", and (2) separately from the 'yeoman' of the audience.[29]: 56 They referred to this confusion in the various meanings of 'yeoman' as the "slipperiness of social terminology" in the 15th century.[29]: 75 Their main source, Peter Coss, also considered another confusion factor, that Gest was compiled from multiple source tales.[30]: 71 Some historical clues found within Gest and the possible source tales, and the changing meanings of 'yeoman', are below.
Almond and Pollard credited J. C. Holt with being the first historian to recognize the connection between a yeoman and the forest.[29]: 57 Based upon clues within the text, Almond and Pollard extended Holt's idea, and proposed that audiences of the 15th century would have recognized Robin Hood as being a forester of Barnsdale or Sherwood because of these clues:[29]: 56-8
Almond and Pollard have traced some of the hunting rituals and terminology found in Gest back to The Master of Game, a hunting book translated in 1413 from French by Edward, Duke of York.[29]: 64-66 They point out that in all the English-language 15th-century hunting literature, 'yeoman' is used consistently to refer to the hunt and forest officials.[29]: 65
"Bow and stable" was the hunting technique in which herds of deer are driven by foresters and professional huntsmen towards the stationary noble hunters. The tryst tree is where the noble huntsman stood, with his bowbearer and his hound handlers, to await the deer being flushed toward them. Sometimes a lodge or hut made of green boughs would be built at the tryst for shelter as well as camouflage.[29]: 64-66
Almond and Pollard compare the 'royal' dinner prepared by Robin for the disguised King in the Seventh Fytte[2]: lines 1545-1576 to that described in The Master of Game. Believing the abbot to be the King's emissary since he carries the Privy Seal, Robin invites him to a royal hunt. Robin escorts his honored guest by the hand (as is required of the yeoman of the bow) to the tryst tree. There the deer are slain and ritually butchered (dyghtande is a northern England term for the ritual).[2]: lines 1533-1576 The butchering is done by Robin himself for the disguised King, who was given the prime cuts of venison, along with bread and wine.[29]: 66-9
In Gest, the huntsman's hut serves as the tryst tree for the dinners with the Knight in the First Fytte and the Chief Steward of St Mary's in the Fourth Fytte. The Knight is given swan and pheasant, a noble's repast, but also the numbles, which was traditionally reserved for the foresters and the huntsmen.[29]: 68-9
This royal (or noble) hunt familiarity may indicate that the Gest poet was a member of either a royal or noble household. Or it may indicate that hunting tales were part of his repertoire. Or both. Coss proposes that the Gest poet had a fairly large body of source material from which to choose. And since he chose to weave his sources together, rather than lay them end-to-end, it is difficult to untangle the now-lost tales which he used.[30]: 71-2
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See also: Yeoman § General Prologue: The Yeoman |
,_1405-1410,_Mus%C3%A9e_national_du_Moyen_%C3%82ge,_Mus%C3%A9e_de_Cluny,_Paris.jpg)
Almond and Pollard also credited J. C. Holt as the first historian to notice the resemblance between Robin Hood and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Yeoman in The Canterbury Tales.[29]: 62-3 But Holt never realized the significance of the Yeoman's accoutrements: his green coat and hood, his bow and arrows; his buckler and sword; and his horn attached to a green baldric. All of which indicated the Yeoman was a forester and huntsman; a position with which Chaucer was certainly familiar. He served as forester of North Petherton Park in Somersetshire for the last decade of his life.[32]: xl
The green livery of the forester and huntsman is depicted in many of the miniatures of the Livre de chasse, written by Gaston III, Count of Foix, in the late 14th century.[29]: 63
Robin later offers Little John's service to the Sorrowful Knight as knave, who can serve as a yeoman in time of need.[2]: lines 322-323 Here the meaning of 'knave' is an attendant,[33]: sense 2 and 'yeoman' refers to the military (chivalric) rank.[34]: sense 1
Later on, in the Third Fytte, Little John, in the guise of Reynold Greenleaf the knave, infiltrates the Sheriff's household in order to wreak vengeance on the Sheriff.[2]: lines 611-16Almond and Pollard's approach coincides neatly with the results of Thomas Ohlgren's study of 'which' King Edward is meant in Gest. Ohlgren asserts that the individual tales were composed during the early decades of the reign of Edward III (r 1327–1377). He bases his assertion on internal evidence (references made in the text) concerning feudalism, livery and maintenance, and other details that can be traced back to Edward III's reign.[3]: 2 Ohlgren proposes that Gest was compiled from these individual tales during the reign of Henry V (1413–1422) or Henry VI (first reign 1422–1461).[3]: 2 He uses the example of the 14th-century political poems of Lauence Minot, whose poems were recopied during Henry V's reign to celebrate Henry's victories in France. Similarly, some of the Robin Hood tales which referred to Edward III could have been compiled as Gest. Ohlgren argues that cultural references made in the original tales would only be understood by an audience who was no more than two or three generations later than Edward III.[3]: 26-8 To support his assertion, Ohlgren considers clues which can be found within the text of Gest.
The knight is far beyond the sea,
In England right,
And suffer hunger and cold,
And many a sorry night.[2]: lines 353-356
For one thing, Robin, I thee promise;
I swear by Saint Quentin,
These forty days thou dwellest with me,
To soup, eat, and dine.[2]: lines 1257-1260
Ohlgren draws attention to the Knight's activities during the year before his 400-pound debt repayment is due to Robin Hood in the Second Fytte. The Knight's income from his lands is only 400 pounds, so how is he paying for the men and equipment?
Ohlgren proposes that the money could have come from two sources: indenture and purveyance.[3]: 5-8 Indenture was started by Edward I as a way of supplementing the number of troops raised through the feudal (tenure) levies, but it became almost standard practice under Edward III, who used it to recruit the rank and file of his armies.[1954_Lyon, p 503-4] In the 14th and 15th centuries, purveyance[MED, sense 3, 4] meant recruiting men, clothing them, furnishing the equipment for a campaign, and providing food and transportation for them to the English coast. The 100 men-at-arms mentioned in the text don't seem to have been the Knight's personal retinue, the uniforms being red and white. These colors belonged to Richard Fitzalan, 3rd Earl of Arundel, who served in almost all of Edward III's French campaigns. Recruiting and outfitting these men could have earned the Knight between 250 and 650 pounds.[3]: 7
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See also: Feudalism in England and Feudal land tenure in England |
Livery originally referred to a lord providing food and clothing to his household servants. It later expanded to refer to the distinctive uniform worn by the lord's servants. Under the original English feudalism as imported by the Normans, a tenant-in-chief's feudal obligations to the king were originally defined by tenure. Those who accepted lands from the king were expected to return specified services at his command, such as fealty, suit of court, and military service. The latter was known as knight's service. The English invasions of Scotland during the reign of Edward I demanded more men-at-arms and archers than the traditional feudal methods could supply. This situation became even more acute under his grandson Edward III at the beginning of the Hundred Years War. Indentures were drawn up between the king and his lords, and between the lords and their sub-tenants or captains of men, for the provision of a certain number of men-at-arms and archers. These men were equipped with weapons and furnished with distinctive clothing or badges as a means of identification.[37]
Under a strong king, such as Edward III, the increased power of regional magnates afforded by this practice could be restrained, but under a weak king, such as Richard II, abuses became rampant. In 1377, 1384, and 1388, Parliament protested against the abuses, now referred to as livery and maintenance. Parliament was concerned about the increasing number of liveried retainers involved in violence and riots who expected to escape legal retribution through the sheriffs and justices of the peace who could be retained by their lord.[37]
Throughout Gest, there are several references to the expanded use of livery and fees during the 14th and 15th centuries.[7] The following incidents indicate that Robin bestowed liveries upon his men (or at least provided the cloth). As mentioned above, this was considered acceptable practice during wartime under the terms of the indentures with Robin, who is considered a yeoman leader, or captain, of men.[3]: 17
However, the most prominent incident is the illegal practice of 'cloth and fee' described in the Second Fytte. 'Cloth and fee' (another name for livery and fee) refers to the payment of money and gifts of clothing to the King's justice in return for favorable legal services.[2]: line 426 Note This practice became so prevalent that, in 1346, Edward III issued a statute requiring his justices to swear an oath that they would only accept 'cloth and fee' from the King himself.[2]: line 425 Note, line 426 Note In this episode, the Abbot is trying to defraud the Knight of his land, so he retains a County Justice, the King's officer, to force the issue in the Abbot's favor.[2]: lines 371-372, 425-426 Once the Abbot has publicly insulted the Knight, the Chief Justice seeks to defuse the situation by suggesting the Abbot offer to purchase the land outright.[2]: lines 465-66, 465 Note The ridiculously low price offered by the Abbot is yet another insult to the Knight, which prompts the Knight to empty the bag of Robin's 400 pounds onto the Abbot's table. The Knight then declares to all present to bear witness to the fact that he has redeemed his land legally.[7]
Most of the initial historical interpretations placing Gest during the 14th century were based upon a misreading of Child's discussion of a possible date of composition for Gest. Child placed his conclusion ("There are no firm grounds on which to base an opinion.") at the end of a lengthy discussion in which he unsuccessfully attempted to date Gest to 1400 or earlier.[6]: 40 Based upon this misreading, for the next century scholars continued to propose that since Piers Plowman is connected with the Peasants' revolt, and since the priest Sloth mentions "rymes of Robyn Hode", then Robin Hood is also connected. However, Langland gives no indication as to what these rhymes are, and there are no surviving rhymes from Langland's lifetime.
According to Richard Almond and A. J. Pollard[29]: 55-6 , the association between Robin Hood and the issues of the Peasants' Revolt was first made by Rodney Hilton in 1958,[38] when he described Robin Hood as "a free peasant representing peasant ideology for a peasant audience".[29]: 55 However, in 1961, J. C. Holt rebutted Hilton, asserting that the Robin Hood tales were composed in castle and manor halls,[39] a position Holt expanded upon in his book.[14] Since then, a consensus has emerged that Robin Hood represented a new social group above the peasants and below those who bore a coat of arms, a group which is often referred to as the "middling sort".[29]: 56 Gest does not appear to be concerned with peasants' issues, and is not particularly similar in themes with surviving songs of the peasantry.[14]: 37-38
In Gest, several references to Robin Hood's fellowship poaching the King's deer are mentioned as passing remarks. They are not further developed, however, and do not appear to be a core part of the early Robin Hood legend. Mentions include:
Gest was included by Francis Child as part of his influential collection of ballads, the Child Ballads, as number 117 in volume 3 of his collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.[6] He had earlier published a version in 1859.[40] Its quatrain structure and rhyme scheme fits with other Middle English ballads. However, Gest, along with other traditional border ballads of the Anglo-Scottish border and ballads of Robin Hood, has its own distinctions from other Child ballads. They are narratives, which generally lack a chorus or refrain, and appear to have been composed as recitations before an audience. Only Gest is considered comparable to the Danish and English heroic ballads,[Note 2] the epic poem Beowulf, and the great Middle English romances - Havelok the Dane and The Tale of Gamelyn.[41][1]
In the Roud Folk Song Index, Gest is listed as number 70.[42]
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See also: Ballad § Traditional ballads |
Lythe and listen, gentlemen
That be of free-born blood;
I shall you tell of a good yeoman
His name was Robyn Hode.[2]: lines 1–4
Thus begins the Gest; calling all free-born gentlemen to hear tales of the good yeoman Robyn Hode. The lines within the quatrain have an ABCB rhyme scheme, in which the last words of lines 2 and 4 rhyme, but the last words of lines 1 and 3 may or may not. The words in each line also have a rhythm or beat due to the combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables. Lines 1 and 3 have four stressed syllables, while lines 2 and 4 have three stressed syllables. Each stressed syllable is preceded by one or two unstressed syllables. Another excerpt, which if read aloud has stressed syllables in bold font to demonstrate the intended rhythm:
Robyn stood in Barnesdale,
And leaned him to a tree,
And by him stood Little John,
A good yeoman was he.[2]: lines 9–12
A musical interpretation of this vocal pattern was recorded in 2002 by Bob Frank in a modern English version entitled A Little Gest of Robin Hood. Frank accompanied himself with an acoustic guitar, while reciting the lines in a talking blues style.[43]
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See also: Ballad § Composition |
As the Child Ballads were being prepared for publication, there was an ongoing debate among those who studied ballad origins. Those who considered that ballads originated as communal songs and dances were known as communalists; those who supported the opposing position, that ballads were written by individual authors, were known as individualists. This debate involved questions that have since been "discarded as subjects for fruitful inquiry".[44] In other words, the question of communal versus individual origination can never be answered due to lack of historical evidence.[44][45] The current consensus is that, since so little is known about the origins of the earliest ballads, their origins can only be deduced from clues within the texts themselves on a case-by-case basis. It was advocated by the English historian J R Maddicott in a series of articles in the journal Past & Present (1958–61) and re-iterated in 1978.[7]: 233
In 1968, D. C. Fowler proposed a new reconstruction of the history of the narrative ballad, based upon his study of Gest, and the oldest Robin Hood ballads (Robin Hood and the Monk, and Robin Hood and the Potter). His proposal was that the narrative ballad is a subcategory of folksong that uses a narrative form. The narrative ballad, as it appeared in England during the 15th–16th centuries, was a result of the merger of several different traditions. The first tradition was folksong, which appeared about the 12th century, and became more widespread during the 13th–15th centuries with the appearance of carols and religious songs sung in the vernacular. The second tradition was itself the result of a 14th-century blending of the 12th century French courtly romances (such as the Arthurian romances) with the Old English alliterative traditional poetry to form a new genre of English metrical narrative romance (such as those included in the Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës).[12]: 5-10 These romances are usually associated with royal court minstrels, but minstrels were also present at the great baronial halls of the north of England.[12]: 8 These powerful barons, such as the House of Percy, the House of Neville, and the York and Lancaster cadet branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, maintained courts which rivalled the Royal Court in London.
Fowler's proposal was both opposed[46][47] and applauded[48][49][50][51][52] for his attempt to construct a history of ballads based upon the earliest dates of surviving texts and not upon comparative structure and form. Independent support for minstrel origins was offered by several historians. Maurice Keen, in his first edition (1961) of The Outlaws of Medieval Legend argued that the ballad form of the Robin Hood stories indicated a primitive popular origin. In the Introduction to his second edition (1977), Keen stated that criticism forced him to abandon his original arguments[26] He now supported the position that the narrative ballads were minstrel compositions. In 1989, James Holt also advocated a minstrel origin for the Robin Hood ballads when he proposed that the original audience was the yeoman servants of the English feudal households, especially those of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, a grandson of Henry III. Holt proposed the ballads were then spread from the great halls to market-places, taverns and inns, where the common people heard them.[14]: 12
Fowler contended that the Robin Hood ballads were distinct from "true" ballads because they were recited, not sung.[12]: 5-10 His evidence is twofold: (1) unrelated manuscripts, approximately from the same time at which Gest may have been compiled, which mention Robin Hood, and (2) internal passages from Gest and the two oldest Robin Hood ballads in manuscript form which are approximately contemporaneous with Gest: Robin Hood and the Monk, and Robin Hood and the Potter.[12]: 65-67
This interpretation of the contemporary manuscripts was originally proposed by Chambers, which Fowler incorporated into his hypothesis.[53] The importance of the manuscripts is not only that they mentioned Robin Hood, but also what they said about him. The manuscripts are:[12]: 65-71
cantitare delectantur loosely translated as "delightful singing" or
as "delightful recitation"[55]: cantare, senses 1,5 [55]: delectantia
recitantur means as "reading aloud"[55]: recitare, sense 1
romanciis means "narratives, stories, or historical accounts"[55]: romancia
mimos means "mimic plays"[55]: mimologus
cantibus means "a singing tone in the delivery of an orator"[55]: canticum, sense II.B
The internal evidence offered by Fowler consists of passages within the three ballads:[12]: 65-67
The most compelling internal evidence is the repeated use of the "Lythe and listen" formulaic.[12]: 65-67 It is found:
"lythe" comes from Old Norse[U of MI's MED]. When used in the phrase "lythe and listen" it means "to hear, to be attentive" (as in the colloquialism "listen up!"). The Gest poet uses this formulaic whenever a new tale is about to begin. Considering the length of the ballad, it is possible that the ballad was broken up into sections for performance; and the "Lythe and listen" would alert the audience that the performance was about to resume.
Scholars have discussed how best to classify Gest: is it a ballad, a poem, an epic or epic poem, a combination, a romance, or something else? Both Francis James Child and his successor George Lyman Kittredge gathered about themselves a group of students to continue the study of the Child ballads. Francis Barton Gummere was a student who assisted Child in compiling the ballads. Gummere later wrote two books which were based upon their collaboration: Old English Ballads[58] and The Popular Ballad.[59] In the latter book, Gummere described a classification scheme based upon the ballad structure and form.
Two other students of Kittredge expanded upon Gummere's classification scheme. Walter Morris Hart studied under Kittredge and later wrote Ballad and Epic. A Study in the Development of the Narrative Art.[60] Hart examined ballads from each of Gummere's classes, and compared Gest to Beowulf and the Song of Roland.[41]: 354-5 Hart looked more closely at the levels of elaboration and accretion, among ballads of the same class and between ballads of different classes. Elaboration (defined by Hart as growth from within)[41]: 355 describes the differences in choral ballads and narrative ballads. As the narrative becomes more important, the characterisations, the surroundings, and the inter-relationships become more detailed. This increased level of detail allows for a more nuanced portrait of an individual's character, motives, and an understanding of their state of mind. Accretion (defined by Hart as the accumulation of independent events)[41]: 355 is the complexity which arises in the narrative as the central character becomes a heroic figure, and represents the community's ideals.[41]: 354-5 On the basis of its elaboration and accretion, Hart judged Gest as "an epic in the making".[41]: 347 In Hart's opinion, Gest is surpassed only by the Danish and English heroic ballads, and Beowulf and Roland.[41]: 357–8
William Hall Clawson wrote his doctoral thesis on the Robin Hood ballads, which was later published as The Gest of Robin Hood.[21][11][41] Prior to its publication, Clawson wrote an article, Ballad and Epic, which summarized his synthesis of the work done by Gummere and Hart. In 1974, J. B. Bessinger Jr., contending that the term "epic" was confusing, called Gest "a minor heroic poem" on the basis of his comparison of Gest with Havelok the Dane and The Tale of Gamelyn. Extending his comparison to the themes and content of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Bessinger concluded that Gest lies somewhere between a ballad, epic, and a romance.[1]
Various scholars have written on Gest. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, by Francis James Child, was very influential and popular in spreading knowledge of the oldest surviving ballads in English literature, although more evidence has been discovered since the late 1880s that Child did not have access to at the time. William Hall Clawson wrote extensively on Gest in 1909.[11] Medievalist D. C. Fowler published A Literary History of the Popular Ballad in 1968.[12] In 1989, two historians, Barrie Dobson and John Taylor, wrote "Rymes of Robyn Hood" on the subject.[61] In 1997, Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren published Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales, a collection of all the pre-17th-century tales of Robin Hood, arranged in chronological order.[62] Their book now forms the core of the Robin Hood Project of the University of Rochester's Middle English Texts website.[63] In 2013 Ohlgren and linguist Lister M. Matheson published Early Rymes of Robin Hood, which includes "as-is" transcriptions of all the earliest surviving copies of Gest for use by scholars.[4]
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See also: Medievalism; Robin Hood § The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; and Robin Hood § Films, animations, new concepts and other adaptations |
Among early ballads, Robin Hood's Death is likely the most related, being a longer telling of the same story as the final six stanzas of Gest. Whether Death was an expansion of Gest, Gest an abridgment of Death, or both were based on a lost common source is impossible to say.[61]
Various motifs in Gest reoccur in both contemporaneous ballads and later ones. Robin Hood robs a cleric in both Robin Hood and the Bishop and Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford; interacts with the king in a mostly friendly fashion in The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood and many later stories; and gets involved in archery contests constantly.[64]
With the rise of English Romanticism in the late 18th century came a resurgence in the popularity of the Robin Hood ballads. Gest was reprinted several times as part of various anthologies, the first of which was Robin Hood: A collection of all the Ancient Poems Songs and Ballads now extant, relative to that celebrated Outlaw, edited by Joseph Ritson in 1795 (followed by later editions in 1820, 1832 and 1885).[65][61] Ivanhoe by Walter Scott was greatly influenced by Ritson's collection and likely an inspiration for the character of Locksley in it. Echoes from Gest can be found throughout Ivanhoe: in its various locations in the West Riding of Yorkshire; in the use of elements of Gest in key scenes at the Tournament of Ashby; and in Scott's re-use of the Gest poet's feasting scene motif to highlight important plot twists.
Gest has influenced modern versions of the Robin Hood tales, especially in the basic plot motifs such as Robin robbing someone and sharing the loot with another who is more worthy. However, its main stories are not always seen as much as the other Robin Hood ballads, most notably the story of The Sorrowful Knight. The adaption which bears obvious traces is the popular children's book written by Howard Pyle in 1883. Pyle's book was a huge influence on how Hollywood would later portray Robin Hood.
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Main article: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
Howard Pyle's contribution to the Robin Hood revival of the 19th century was his richly illustrated children's book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Following in the footsteps of Walter Scott, Pyle had Robin Hood roaming Sherwood Forest (not Barnsdale) during the reign of King Richard the Lionheart (not comely King Edward). Pyle did adapt the tale of the Sorrowful Knight, perhaps the most unique tale of Gest, in Chapters I-II of Part the Fifth of his work.[66]: 157-184 The story is heavily modified from that in Gest (Pyle replaced most of Fytte 1 with his own version of how the Knight received his money; not from Robin, but from the Bishop of Hereford, who "conveniently" came to Robin's feast). Writing in an era of it being cheap to write in longform, Pyle extended the story with richly detailed descriptions and drawings, while the compiler of Gest, needing to make something short and punchy enough to potentially be recited by a minstrel, was more spare in his prose.
All dreary was his semblance,
And little was his pride;
His one foot in the stirrup stood,
That other waved beside.
His hood hanged in his eyes two;
He rode in simple array,
A sorrier man than he was one
Rode never in summer day."
—The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (left)[66]: 159 Gest, Fytte 1 (right)[2]: lines 85-92
Pyle also includes the episode of the wrestling yeoman, but to tie it more clearly into the novel, he made the man David of Doncaster, a Merry Man from Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, though even this made the episode odd among Pyle's novelistic effects.[67]
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