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ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE: FOOTNOTE

1 When woods are bright, and branches full fair
 

ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE: NOTES

1 MS: shales. Child emends to shawes, a word frequently used to set the early summer scene for a Robin Hood ballad. It is not an obvious error for a scribe to make, but no other likely emendation offers itself.

4 MS: singe. Child emends to songe for the sake of rhyme, but this seems unnecessary in the context of the fairly relaxed practices of ballad rhyming.

5 MS: woodweete. Child emends to woodweele, the woodwall or golden oriole; this may have become confused with bird names like godwit and peewit.

7 Editors have felt that although there is no break in the manuscript a substantial piece of narrative is missing. They feel that in the missing stanzas Robin has introduced and described a bad dream. Child locates the gap after line 8, and Dobson and Taylor agree. However, the reason they can reconstruct the notionally missing lines is that (unlike the case in Robin Hood and the Monk after line 120) there is no information missing from the poem. In view of the characteristic "leaping and lingering" style of ballads, and the way in which many Robin Hood adventures begin very rapidly after a short nature introduction, there seems in fact no reason other than the fixed ideas of realist-minded scholars to assume a gap here. The text works as it stands in the manuscript.

13 Little John tries to reassure Robin that since dreams are fleeting they do not need to be taken seriously. Dream lore is a popular theme in Middle English poetry; see Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, lines 2907-3156; The House of Fame, 1-52; and The Romaunt of the Rose, lines 1-20. Like Pertelote in the Nun's Priest's Tale, Little John is giving Robin bad advice.

21 This is a six-line stanza, which can also be identified in several other early texts, e.g., Adam Bell, lines 358-63, Robin Hood and the Potter, lines 208-13, 254-59, 280-85, Robin Hood and the Monk, lines 137-42, as well as several stanzas in the short Robin and Gandeleyn.

25 Child inserts a between of and wight, but these early ballads are often very clipped in their utterance (as in line 28), and there is no convincing case for the emendation.

32 trusty tree. Presumably a corruption of the phrase "trystyng tree." It also appears as "trystyll" (trestle or platform) tree -- presumably suitable for speeches or even hangings. The three notions of tryst, trust, and trestle all embody central concepts of the outlaw band, with its meetings, fidelity, and occasional addresses by the leader.

45 Barnsdale. Child emends to Barnesdale, but this seems a freely varying spelling at this time.

49 Child omits owne.

59 yeiwe. Child reads the manuscript, damaged here, as veiwe and so, with less certainty, do Dobson and Taylor (1976, p. 142). Under ultra-violet light the word appears to be, as might be expected, yeiwe.

70 Dobson and Taylor comment "The confusion of sense in this stanza makes it probable that the text hereabouts is corrupt" (1976, p. 142); it is not clear what they mean by confusion. The action seems straightforward: because John's bow breaks, his inaccurate (and so "vaine," yet still fatal) shot misses the sheriff and hits one of his men.

76 Child reports this line as mostly illegible, but ultra violet light supports his hypothetical reading.

79 This is a long line; Percy remarks that quoth the sheriff has probably been added to clarify matters (Reliques, 1765, p. 80), yet these opening lines of speech with a speaker added recur in the ballads (see Gest, lines 309, 441, 629, 757, 1001, Potter, lines 21, 41, 81, 222, 226), and there seem no good grounds to emend; see line 103 below.

88 lyne. The lime tree is a linden, a tree that is particularly fragrant when in bloom. The term is used often for trees in general, however.

91 Guy speaks the first line and Robin the next three.

103 Guy pretends to be another forester, who also seeks Robin Hood; Little John uses the same maneuver in Robin Hood and the Monk, lines 162-82.

109 MS: mee. Ritson, Gutch, and Child emend to meet.

129 MS: on: an, meaning "if" seems a probable emendation.

138 Gysborne. Child says that "Gisburne is in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the borders of Lancashire, seven miles from Clitheroe" (III, 91), but Bellamy suggests that Guy is connected with the village of "Guisborough in the North Riding (known in the middle ages as Giseburne)" (1985, pp. 34-35).

151 MS: reachles. Child emends to reacheles, presumably on metrical grounds, but this is unnecessary.

161 Percy emends to "backward," but "acward" meaning "back-handed," here spelled awkwarde, is common in Middle English.

167 Irish kniffe. Presumably a form of hunting knife.

175-76 MS: Robin did on his gowne of green, / On Syr Guye hee did it throwe. This does not make sense. Child emends onin line 175 to off, but this is still very awkward. It is better to assume that having inserted onerroneously in line 175 (because of the collocation with didin the context of clothing), the scribe then tried to patch line 176 by adding "hee did it." If these notional insertions are omitted, the text has the characteristically condensed tone of the early ballad.

181 MS: Barnsdale. As in line 45, Child inserts e unnecessarily.

193 wight. The MS has "wighty," which Child accepts, but this is probably a confusion of the true reading wight and "mighty."

205 Child inserts hath before MS beene. The manuscript reading is certainly unacceptable, but a better emendation would be bee, a subjunctive which a scribe could easily misread as a plural.

218 shrift. Robin continues the suggestion that he is to kill Little John and momentarily plays the priest, who hears the dying man's last words, as well as the executioner.

234 Percy euphemized the action by changing the line to "He shott him into the 'backe'-syde."