“He say_d_ Robyn Hod . . . . yne the preson, And owght off hit was g_on_.
The porter rose a-non certeyn, As sone as he hard Johan call; Lytyll Johan was redy with a sword, And bare hym throw to the wall.
Now will I be jayler, sayd lytyll Johan, And toke the keys in hond; He toke the way to Robyn Hod, And sone he hyme unbond.
He gaffe hym a good swerd in his hond, His hed ther-with for to kepe; And ther as the wallis wer lowest, Anon down ther they lepe.
I have d_one_ the a god torne for an . . . Quit me when thow may; I have done the a gode torne, sayd lytyll [Johan], Forsothe as I the saye; { lxxv} I have browghte the under the gren wod . . . Farewell & have gode daye.
Nay, be my trowthe, sayd Robyn, So schall it never bee; I make the master, sayd Robyn, Off all my men & me. Nay, be my trowthe, sayd lytyll Johan, So schall it never bee.”
This, indeed, may be part of the “story of Robin Hood and Little John,” which M. Wilhelm Bedwell found in the ancient MS. lent him by his much honoured good friend M. G. Withers, whence he extracted and published “The Turnament of Tottenham,” a poem of the same age, and which seemed to him to be done (perhaps but transcribed) by Sir Gilbert Pilkington, formerly, as some had thought, parson of that parish.[61]
That poems and stories on the subject of our hero and his companions were extraordinarily popular and common before and during the 16th century is evident from the testimony of divers writers. Thus, Alexander Barclay, priest, in his translation of The Shyp of Folys, printed by Pynson in 1508, and by John Cawood in 1570,[62] says:
“I write no jeste ne tale of Robin Hood.”
“For goodlie scripture is not worth an hawe, But tales are loved ground of ribaudry; And many are so blinded with their foly, That no scriptur thinke they so true nor gode, As is a foolish jest of Robin Hode.”
“And of all fables and jestes of Robin Hood, Or other trifles.”
The same Barclay, in the fourth of his Egloges, subjoined to the last edition of The Ship of Foles, but originally printed soon after 1500, has the following passage:
“Yet would I gladly heare some mery fit Of maide Marion, or els of Robin Hood, Or Benteleyes ale, which chafeth well the blood, Of Perte of Norwich, or Sauce of Wilberton, Or buckishe Joly[63] well stuffed as a ton.”