A GEST OF ROBYN HODE: NOTES

3 yeman denotes a broad social rank below knights and squires, ranging from a small landowning farmer to an attendant, servant, or lesser official in a royal or noble household (Middle English yoman, perhaps contraction of yongman); for the relevance of the term to the audience of the Robin Hood materials, see General Introduction, pp. 9-11.

5 outlaw. A person excluded from legal protection and rights (Old English utlaga, from Old Norse utlagi). Although the term "outlaw" was applied to anyone who had committed a serious crime - robbery, murder, or rape, the term had a more limited meaning in medieval law. The sentence of outlawry was reserved for those criminals who refused to appear for trial in court: "They become outlaws when, having been lawfully summoned, they do not appear, and are awaited and even sought for throughout the lawful and appointed terms, and yet they do not present themselves for trial" (David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway, eds., English Historical Documents 1042-1189 [London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1968] II, 552). Given the harsh punishments that awaited the convicted felon - blinding, loss of limb, or castration - it is not surprising that many fled to the forest or abroad to escape judgment.

6-7 Apart from as he was one these lines are missing in a, the "Lettersnijder" text, and as with other gaps in this source are provided from b, Wynkyn de Worde's edition.

9 Bernesdale or Bernysdale are medieval spellings of Barnesdale. This has long been identified as a tract of land in the West Riding of Yorkshire: the most recent discussion is by Holt (1989, pp. 83-87). As he notes, however, "there was no forest or chase," and he speculates that the three major locations of the myth - Barnsdale, Sherwood Forest, and Nottingham - "are all confounded." More recently Knight (1994, pp. 29-32) has identified another ancient Barnsdale in Rutland, being a royal forest with other Robin Hood references nearby and even some association with the Earls of Huntingdon before that link was made in literary form in the late sixteenth century. The Gest, however, clearly links Barnsdale with named places in Yorkshire, see lines 69-70. It does not mention Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, but does set part of the story in Nottingham, see note to line 59.

24 gest. Like King Arthur in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and many other romances, Robin Hood refuses to eat "until something strange and wonderful happens, until he is provided with an appropriately distinguished or unusual guest" (Dobson and Taylor, 1976, p. 32). Though the word Gest in the title of the poem refers to an event or deed (from Latin res gestae, "things done," as used in the French epic Chansons de geste), this context clearly uses the other word gest, meaning "guest," see lines 63-64, 835.

25 This line is missing in all the sources, and Child leaves it blank. It is supplied here on the model of similar passages in early ballads, though it is conceivable that, as the rhymes are the same in the two stanzas, it might have originally been an irregular seven-line stanza.

27 Child inserts som again before squyer, presumably on metrical grounds; it appears in the later texts, but is not necessary.

35 Robin here reveals his special devotion to the Virgin Mary. The Marian cult is of course one of the major features of Roman Catholicism, and it reached its apogee in Western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Robin's devotion to the Virgin, and to all women (lines 39-40), has an ironic poignancy when we recall that he is murdered by a religious woman, the prioress of Kyrkely priory. The allusion to the Virgin is also significant because a "miracle of the Virgin" underlies one of the central episodes in the Gest - Robin's loan of four hundred pounds to Sir Richard. See the Introduction and note to line 255.

57 Robin's outlawry is directed primarily at civil and ecclesiastical oppression and corruption. While he is a devoted Christian (see lines 31-37), he targets local officials and religious orders for abusing their authority and for usury, the lending of money at an exorbitant or illegal rate of interest; for a summary see Dobson and Taylor, 1976, pp. 30-31.

59 The Sheriff of Nottingham is Robin Hood's traditional adversary. The Gest does not explain why the Sheriff of one county, Nottinghamshire, would be interested in the activities of an outlaw living and operating in another county; the same occurs in Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. This is presumably the result of different ballads being meshed into one longer story. On the variation of place, see Dobson and Taylor, 1976, pp. 14-15 and, for the real activities of such sheriffs, see Bellamy, 1985, Chap. 4.

69-70 These place-names set Robin Hood's activities firmly in the area of the Yorkshire Barnsdale. The Roman Road to the north (in this text erroneously called Watling Street, actually named Ermine Street, and later the Great North Road and the A1) runs north from Barnsdale Bar, crossing the River Went at Wentbridge. The Saylis has been identified by Dobson and Taylor as a plot of ground overlooking the highway on the northern edge of Barnsdale (1976, pp. 22-23); see also Holt, 1989, pp. 83-85.

To counteract the prevalence of highway robbery, Edward I sponsored special measures in the Statute of Winchester (A.D. 1285): "It is likewise commanded that the highways from market towns to other market towns be widened where there are woods or hedges or ditches, so that there may be no ditch, underwood or bushes where one could hide with evil intent within two hundred feet of the road on one side or the other, provided that this statute extends not to oaks or to large trees so long as it is clear underneath" (Harry Rothwell, ed., English Historical Documents, 1189-1327 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1975] II, 461).

79 loke. Child emends to "loked" for consistency of tense, but all the early sources have this dramatic present, which is retained here.

83 The knight is identified with the knight rescued by the outlaws from Nottingham and named as Sir Richard at the Lee (lines 1239-41). He comes from Verysdale (line 504), which is probably the hamlet of Lee in Wyresdale in Lancashire (see Child III, 50; Holt, 1989, p. 100).

103 Child inserts a before gode yoman, but the text is idiomatic Middle English as it stands.

108 Blyth and Doncaster are located on the main road south of the Barnsdale region.

113 lodge refers to a temporary shelter in a forest, usually used for hunting.

125 For the cultural significance of hand washing before a meal, see the note to line 164 of Robin Hood and the Potter. See also line 921 in the Gest, and line 527 in Adam Bell.

128 noumbles. Organ meats such as liver, heart, and kidney, but also, in early usage, particularly for venison, loin cuts. See OED.

145 The source has wened, meaning "thought." Child emends to wende for sense, and this is accepted.

148 Child reads, with the source, knyhht, but this is probably a printer's error.

164 This unusual statement is repeated in line 984, and is not varied by any of the early texts. It presumably means "No peny (of that) I will have."

168 Child inserts a before pounde, but this does not seem required either for sense or meter.

170 Child inserts full before lowe: this is in some other early texts, but seems unnecessary, especially with full styll in the previous line.

177 Child inserts one before worde, as is usual in this collocation; it is found in other early texts and seems necessary for both sense and meter.

179 knyght of force refers to the practice of "distraint of arms," that is "requiring military tenants who held £20 per annum to receive knighthoods or pay a compensation, begun under Henry III, as early as 1224, and continued by Edward I" (Child III, 51). In a Parliamentary writ, dated 1278, Edward I ordered all sheriffs in England "to distrain [compel] without delay all those of your bailiwick who have lands worth twenty pounds a year, or one whole knight's fee worth twenty pounds a year, and hold of us in chief and ought to be knights but are not, to receive from us before Christmas or on that feast the arms of a knight" (Harry Rothwell, ed., English Historical Documents 1189-1327 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1975] II, 413).

180 Or ellys of yemanry refers to the requirement for people owning less than a pound or 20 shillings to provide yeoman such as archers for royal forces (Powicke, 1962, p. 197).

204 Child inserts medial e in kyndnesse, presumably for metrical reasons, but this is not necessary.

212-13 In both lines Child prints both as in the earliest text and some later ones; the b text has beth in 213. It seems that both makes no sense in 213, and has been introduced into 212 by the juxtaposition of the doublet sette and solde. This text emends to beth in each line.

217 In order to provide bail for his son, who has killed a knight in a joust, Sir Richard has pledged his lands as security for a loan of 400 pounds from the abbot of St Mary's Abbey in York. The loan is due, but the knight has only ten shillings, and as a result he stands to lose his pledged property.

255 When Robin asks for security (borowe) for the loan of four hundred pounds, the knight replies that he has none other than Our dere Lady, which, because of his devotion to the Virgin, Robin readily accepts. Sagacious as usual, Child (III, 51-52) cites two parallels: one from the Legenda aurea in which a knight robs travellers, and the other from a Latin miracle of the Virgin in which a Christian borrows money from a Jewish money-lender and pledges the Virgin as his security. While the first example is a little remote - it is the knight in the Gest who is waylaid by robbers - the miracle of the Virgin is much more promising. When we consider (apparently unknown to Child) that the miracle entitled The Merchant's Surety exists in two Middle English versions dating from c. 1390 and c. 1450, the probability of influence is greatly increased. Although there are significant differences between the version in the Gest and the Middle English miracle, the opening plot elements and language are strikingly close: both the knight and the merchant love the Virgin; both are impoverished (due to differing circumstances); both are asked to pledge security for a loan; both offer the Virgin as their borowe/borwe; in both it is proclaimed that the Virgin will never fayle; both swear that they will repay the loans on a certain day; and, finally, Little John and the Jew make sure that the money is wel tolde/wel itold. For the text of The Merchant's Surety, see pp. 44-49 in Beverly Boyd, The Middle English Miracles of the Virgin (San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1964). Another edition is in Carl Horstmann, ed., The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, Early English Text Society, o.s. 98 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1892), 157-61.

273 The source reads Much, but other texts call him litill Much here, as does the source at lines 291 and 305. Conceivably this name came from confusion with "litill John," but the adjective seems to improve the meter before "Much" in these instances and is accepted here.

279 Robin Hood on several occasions provides "livery" for those he protects. This is more than clothing: "livery and maintenance" were ways of building up a band of retainers, and it was frequently regarded as a crime if a man did not have the right to do that (Bellamy, 1973, especially pp. 8-9). Thus giving livery in an honest cause is another of Robin Hood's "good" crimes.

281 scarlet and grene. While the text is in no doubt about these colors, and both are used of the outlaws' clothing in early ballads, it seems likely that the line was originally scarlet in graine, that is a particularly good form of scarlet dye. But that is no reason to emend. It is, however, a sign that green was not the original color of the outlaws' clothing, but one of the accreted details of the myth.

289-90 Here appears a minor instance of the "bad tradesman" motif, especially clear in Robin Hood and the Potter.

332 The a text is deficient from this point until line 473 and b is followed.

334 The spelling of Litell John changes to Lytel Johan as the b text is taken up as the source.

335 Some thirty miles north of Barnsdale, York, a fine walled city with a 2000-year history, is the location of the powerful St. Mary's Abbey, where the knight must repay his 400 pounds or lose his land.

345 The text has a line missing, and Child sensibly repeats the line that ends the previous stanza - a repetition which may have caused the omission in the first place. Such repetitions for emphasis are not uncommon in early ballads.

351-52 The meaning of the lines seems obscure, but there are no signs of editing in the early texts to suggest miscomprehension. Presumably the Prior means "(If it were me) I would rather pay the hundred pounds right away."

353-54 The Prior seems to have knowledge of the knight's military activities ferre beyonde the see in England's cause. In line 388 the knight confirms that he has just returned from abroad with his meyné or company of soldiers.

354 Child inserts is his into this line, which in the text reads simply In Englonde ryght. The b text reads In Englonde he is right and the later f and g, like Child, have is his right. This suggest different ways of editing an original line reading simply In Englonde ryght, acceptable Middle English for In England's cause, which makes better sense both grammatically and in terms of the support the Prior is here giving the knight. There seems no ground for changing the original.

362 Saynt Rychere. The source reads Richard but the rhyme clearly requires Rychere. It is not fully clear which saint is referred to. In a note on Gamelyn, line 137 (which reads Rychere), Skeat states that, among a number of minor St. Richards, this one, popular in outlaw oaths, is the thirteenth century St. Richard of Chichester, who was "a pattern of brotherly love" (1884, pp. 38-39). Rhyme itself seems sufficient reason to emend to Rychere.

371 justyce. Child inserts hye; the expanded title is also found in some other early texts, but there seems little need for the emendation in terms either of sense or meter.

388 The knight speaks as if he and his company have (as the Prior suspected in line 353) been abroad, perhaps on a military campaign or crusade. This was not indicated earlier, and seems contradicted by his apparent plans to go on crusade (lines 223-28), but if he is travelling north to York, he is not coming from his notional home in Lancashire. The uncertainty may arise from combining different ballads.

389 With a line missing in all the texts, Child inserts a repetition from line 387, which seems sensible.

416 Syr justyce. The justice, or professional lawyer, is the agent of a powerful lord - the abbot in this case. Justices were an important part of the county court system, performing a variety of functions: "pleaders, attorneys, seignorial bailiffs, and seneschals, as well as occasionally filling royal positions such as undersheriff, sheriff, and county clerk" (Robert C. Palmer, The County Courts of Medieval England 1150-1350. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, p. 89). When the lawyer says he is holde with the abbot . . . Both with cloth and fee, he is revealing that he has been hired by the abbey to render legal services for a fee or annual annuity (Palmer, pp. 95-96).

425 Referring to the justice's being holde with the abbot, Kaeuper notes that "in the first half of the fourteenth century the practice by which lords retained the king's justices was more prevalent than it had been earlier or would be again" (1988, p. 180).

426 The phrase cloth and fee echoes the Latin formula cum robis et foedis, used to designate payment of legal services with both money and gifts of clothing. The abbot had retained the chief justice in order to help him bankrupt the knight. According to Child (III, 52) the practice of giving and receiving robes for such purposes was considered a conspiracy in the legal code of King Edward I, 1305-06; in another statute of King Edward III, dated 1346, justices were required to swear that they would accept robes and fees only from the king.

450 call: the rhyme word is missing in Child's source (b here) but is in other early texts and needs inserting.

465 The abbot is seeking to gain the land by "purchas," that is, by cash sale, not by inheritance. At lines 471-76 the knight resists this; it was an increasingly common form of land transfer in the period, and is at the basis of the conflict in Gamelyn (see note to line 14).

473 The a text is available from this line until 831, with a gap at 532-44.

484 Child notes "the knight would have given something for the use of the four hundred pounds had the abbot been civil, though under no obligation to pay interest" (III, 52).

489 The abbot, having failed to gain the land, asks the justice to repay his retainer, intended to facilitate this process.

493 The a text has only Sir . . . n of lawe and then has a gap until line 507; the text is supplied from b.

504 Verysdale. See note to line 83.

527 The nock is a small v-shaped cut in the end of an arrow to fit the string. This cut can split, and a horn or metal cap prevents this. Silver would be unusually lavish.

530-31 The a text is damaged in the second half of these two lines and then has a gap until line 545. The text is supplied from b.

537 at Wentbrydge. Child reads, with the earliest text, But as he went at a brydge: this is obviously an attempt to edit by a compositor who did not know Wentbridge (this is its first mention in the poem). Child includes this necessary emendation as a possible reading in his textual note, III, 79.

537 Wrestling was not, by the fourteenth century, considered an aristocratic sport. In the portrait of the Miller in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer observes of this "churl" that "at wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram" (line 548). In Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas - a burlesque of the popular romances and ballads of the day - the effeminate hero engages in both wrestling and archery. In Gamelyn the hero only wrestles when he has been effectively disinherited.

548 The prize for an ordinary wrestling match was a ram: in this contest, however, the victor wins a bull, a saddled horse, a pair of gloves, a gold ring, and a cask of wine. This may suggest an "art" or literary context for the Gest.

551 ferre and frembde bested. This appears to mean "set far (from home) and as a stranger." Dobson and Taylor translate as "And because he was a stranger and in the predicament of being a foreigner" (1976, p. 89).

558 in fere. Child emends the phrase to free for the sake of the rhyme, but this is very vague in meaning compared with in fere, and rhymes in the Gest are frequently imprecise.

582 Shooting at sticks stuck in the ground was the hardest challenge for any archer in the ballads; Little John split the stick each time.

588 sawe I me. Child adds me to the line to improve the rhyme; this is found in b, but later texts edit differently That ever I did see. Child follows the same practice in line 675 where there is a little more support in the early texts for I me at the end of the line. The resultant expression seems unusual - a reflexive use of see - but it is found in lines 400 and 736, so the emendation is accepted.

624 While it might seem tempting to emend the source to Gyve me my dynere sone, so improving both the rhyme and the meter, long lines and imprecise rhymes are common in the Gest, and the text is best left unemended.

628 Mi dyner gif thou me. Though Child accepts the source Mi dyner gif me; this very short line is filled out uniformly with thou in other early texts and it seems more probable that thou was lost in a compositor's error rather than different texts hit on the same amplification, simple though it is.

650 The while that he wolde. This is how Child emends the source's The while he wole for both meter and rhyme. Other early texts insert that after while, which is accepted here on metrical grounds, but none has the past tense in wolde. Yet wole and bolde would make a very poor rhyme, and the loss of d is very easy: Child's reading is accepted.

675 sawe I me. Child's addition of me for rhyme is accepted; see note to line 588 for discussion.

701 Child inserts they, with other early texts, and though this is not grammatically essential, it seems a sensible emendation.

704 hore. Hoar or gray, due to the absence of foliage or because of the gray lichen that attaches itself to aged tree trunks.

714 Child emends sende to sendeth to keep the tense consistent with the previous line, but this is not necessary in Middle English.

731 Child prints the source's shryef, but though this is a conceivable condensation of shire-reeve, it is most likely a compositor's error and is emended to shyref.

738 As line 752 reveals, the green hart, with his herd of seven score deer, is an ironic reference (perhaps subliminally mythic) to Robin Hood, the mayster-herte and his men.

775 toke. Child emends the source's to to toke, with other early texts. This is not absolutely necessary grammatically, but to him would be a somewhat strained reading, and Child's emendation is accepted.

803 thy best. Child emends the source to the beste, presumably on grounds of sense and meter, but this seems unnecessary.

810 Child inserts by before day, as do some early texts, presumably on metrical grounds, but this is not necessary.

822-24 Robin is waiting to be repaid the four hundred pounds loaned to the knight, Sir Richard. This is the one year anniversary of their agreement in line 315. Commercial interests have invaded the Greenwood: Robin is acting like the avaricious abbot of St. Mary's and the Jewish money-lender in The Merchant's Surety (see note to line 255). The knight is late because he stopped to help the yeoman at the wrestling match. See also the note to line 939.

832 The a text is not available until line 1255, and b is followed.

835 such unketh gest. The source's reading does make sense, if with some awkwardness - "Look for the kind of unknown guest (we seek)." Other early texts read more simply "some strange." In printing some unketh Child uncharacteristically produces a hybrid reading that no one can have had and which can hardly have been an error for such unketh. In the absence of any obvious emendation, the earliest source is retained here, as it does make sense.

842 See line 51 of Robin Hood and the Monk for a fuller instance of Little John's anger: it is clear there that Robin's commands have annoyed him.

849 they. The source has he, presumably an error, as the plural pronoun of line 848 is used again in line 851. Child's emendation is accepted.

856 The source has That, which Child accepts and then inserts these afterwards to make sense, as do some early texts. But the more probable error is to have misread initial The as an abbreviated That, and this change is made here. The monkes have brought our pay introduces a recurrent ironic joke, that the robbery of the monks is a repayment, sanctioned by Mary, of the money lent to the knight. The joke recurs in Robin Hood's Golden Prize, lines 57-58.

858 b reads frese, which Child prints, but in his collation suggests leese, meaning "let loose" or drese meaning "get ready." The latter seems much more likely, fitting well with 860.

861 Child inserts men at the end of the line, but the noun is not needed and is not in the earliest texts.

870 The syntax is colloquial: John instructs the outlaws to stop the crowd of travellers, and picks the leading monk as his own target.

921 For the custom of hand washing, see the note to line 164 of Robin Hood and the Potter. Other references occur in line 125 of the Gest and line 527 in Adam Bell.

930 here. there might seem a more obvious word in terms of sense, but there is no support for it in the early texts.

939 Again Robin is preoccupied with being repaid his loan to the knight. The emphasis on pay, money, borowe, cofers, marke, peny, sylver, male, pounde, and doubled your cast permeates the scene that follows, and casts Robin in the role of a concerned money-lender.

960 The source has ame, but this is clearly an error for dame and needs emending; Child records the error as name.

984 See also line 164 for this idiom.

988 The source only has eight, but hundred, easily lost as the Roman numeral c, is obviously needed, and Child emends accordingly.

991 An ironic moment: the monk's fidelity depends on the outlaw's pretending to assume that Mary has meant him to carry money to Robin.

1012 The abbot is attempting to use a legal means to overturn the knight's victory in lines 493-96.

1018 tale is ironic: they have listened to the monk's tale in the previous stanza.

1048 The source reads they mery meyne: Child emends a notional thy to his, but the error is more probably based on an original reading of the, which is adopted here.

1069 This very long line is even longer in most sources, which insert sayd the knyght after grefe: Child accepts this. There are a number of long lines that identify a speaker (see note to line 41 of Robin Hood and the Monk), but they begin speeches. The knight has already been identified as the speaker and so sayd the knyght can be omitted here.

1083 selerer. Child inserts hye before the noun; this is found in later texts, but seems unnecessary; see the similar insertion before justyce in line 371.

1127 Here and in several later instances (lines 1163, 1199, 1251) Child adds e to proud, presumably on metrical grounds; although the spelling proude does appear in the text, this and the other instances of the emendation seem unnecessary.

1131 Child inserts he after And; this is not in the other early texts (though two late ones have they) and does not seem needed, that here having full pronominal, not simply relative force.

1135 buttes. Mounds or other prominences (usually artificial) marking the limits of a shooting range.

1158 Child inserts ve into hede, so the older form of the word (from OE heafod) can rhyme with desceyved. Rhyme is at times so imprecise in the Gest that the emendation appears unnecessary and no early texts emend on this basis: perhaps they read desceyved as having three syllables and so rhyming with hede perfectly, but see also note to line 1218.

1165 a bout. Child spells about and treats it like an adverb, but, as in Robin Hood and the Potter (see note to line 205) the source separates the letters into article and noun, and this makes sense in the action.

1166 Child emends the source's they to he, and while they could be taken to make sense, rather vaguely, and was accepted by some early texts, the change seems justified and has support in the other early texts.

1167 Gylberte with the White Hand seems to be Robin's near equal in the tournament, and this may be a version of the "shoot-off" which will in Scott lead to splitting the arrow (Ivanhoe, ch. 13), where Locksley's opponent is Hubert. But, as in line 1604, Gylberte is again mentioned in the same formulaic way, and this time the competition is in the forest, among the archers. He does not appear elsewhere.

1171 In line 595 Reynolde is the alias of Little John; here he is depicted as a separate character. Child prints in his Introduction to the Gest a ballad telling how Reynold joined the outlaws (III, 54). There was a Reynoldyn in the comic list of outlaw names found in the Wiltshire parliamentary rolls as early as 1432; a late fifteenth-century poem speaks of "how Reynall and Robin Hode runnen at the gleve," and in 1502 Robert Fabyan's Chronicle speaks of a criminal arrested about Midsummer "which had renued many of Robin Hodes pageantes, which named himself Granelef" (for these references see Knight, 1994, Appendix, pp. 264-68). With such evidence of a Reynold Greenleaf as one of the extended band, the question is why Little John took on his name? Was there perhaps a ballad of how Reynold served the Sheriff, which was absorbed by the compiler of the Gest?

1181 The populace are, it seems, raising the hue and cry against Robin Hood, and in that case the town constables had to make an arrest (Bellamy, 1973, p. 93). See note to line 1713.

1210 lovest. Child inserts d, apparently so lovedest can retain the consistency of a past tense; but by line 1216 John is speaking in the present and the emendation seems unnecessary.

1218 Unlike line 1158, Child does not insert f into hede for the purpose of a better rhyme with lefte, all later texts emend the line to create a good rhyme. The earliest texts seem to overlook the problem, so emendation seems unnecessary. SEe also line 1158, where the problem likewise occurs. There Child does amend to hefte.

1245 Child inserts I after moche, as do the later texts, and this seems required.

1254 a is available again until line 1395.

1258 St. Quentin is, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, a martyr who "preached at Amiens where the probably fictitious prefect Rictiovarus arrested and interrogated him, finally killing him by a series of fearsome tortures." Perhaps it is fitting that Sir Richard swear by St. Quentin that he will protect Robin Hood and thus save him from the sort of arrest and torture that the saint suffered.

1297 The source reads wyl not wil as Child has it.

1317 The source reads fayles which would be a sharp change of tense; all but the two earliest sources vary it, and Child's emendation to fayled is accepted.

1323 Hawking is an aristocratic pastime, and the knight would not be fully armed; there is a supposition of the sheriff's improper behavior in his capture.

1324 Child inserts his before haukes, apparently on metrical grounds; the earliest text lacks his, and the emendation seems unnecessary.

1352-53 These two lines are left blank by Child. Copland offers "The proude shiriffe,"/then sayd she, which completes well the stanza 1349-52, but he then offers two new and weak lines in place of 1354-56: "He is not yet passed thre myles, / You may them overtake." It seems best to produce a new line as 1353 based on repetition (see line 345).

1392 Child inserts e on the end of bright, presumably on metrical grounds, but this seems unnecessary.

1395 The a text is not available for the rest of the poem and b is followed.

1402 The source has hoode which does not make sense, unless the knight had a hood over his head - but at line 1328 the knight was merely said to be bound. None of the other early texts seem to see any problem, but Child's emendation to bonde is accepted.

1412 Three Edwards reigned in succession from 1272 to 1377: Edward I, 1272-1307; Edward II, 1307-27; Edward III, 1327-77. Joseph Hunter noted that Edward II had in 1324 a "valet de chambre" with the name of Robin Hood, though there was no indication that he had been in trouble with the law (pp. 38). Holt discusses the connection with some scepticism, but also feels that some of the events in the seventh and eighth fitts had a basis in historical fact (1989, pp. 155-56). He notes that after Edward II's execution of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1322, the earl's supporters committed wide-spread acts of vengeance, including the pillaging of the king's deer in the royal forests, and that as in the Gest, Edward II himself travelled to the area to investigate these disturbances. Knight has suggested that Edward IV, who may best fit the description our comly kynge (also in lines 1457, 1513, 1549, 1637, 1727), is referred to, as his period of rule (1461-83) is not inconsistent with the argument that the Gest is composed much later than has usually been thought (1994, pp. 46-48). We may, however, be on firmer ground in now identifying the king in fitts seven and eight as Edward III, because Laurence Minot refers to him as Edward, oure cumly king in line 1 of Poem IV, which was composed about 1339 to commemorate Edward III's invasion of France at the beginning of the Hundred Years War (Richard Osberg, ed., The Poems of Laurence Minot, 1333-1352, Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996).

1425 The source reads the passe of Lancashire which makes no sense. Some of the later texts read compasse, which is very unlikely to be an editorial emendation because of its inherent complexity, and is probably the original reading.

1427 Ritson, relying on Camden's Britannia, suggested Plompton Park was "upon the banks of the Penterill in Cumberland" (1795, p. xxv), and Child (III, 54-55) agreed, though noting that Hunter, "citing no authority" said it was part of the forest of Knaresborough in Yorkshire. Dobson and Taylor follow Hunter, though they include "possibly" in their note (1976, p. 105) and locate it in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Holt (1989, p. 101) argues for Plumpton Wood in Lancaster, near the king's demesne wood of Myerscough. However, it seems clear that the reference is to part of Inglewood forest near Carlisle, providing an interesting connection with Andrew of Wyntoun's early location of Robin and Little John there. In her edition of The Awntyrs of Arthur, Helen Phillips notes that "Plumptoun Laund . . . was an area of grassland within the forest (walled in between 1332-35), within which was Plumpton Hay, a fenced park" (1988, p. 8). Plumpton is mentioned again in Robin Hood's Fishing, lines 65 and 71, possibly there a reference to the Gest as Dobson and Taylor suggest (1976, p. 181).

1429 Forest law. Royal laws regulating the use of forests can be traced back to the legal codes of Ine (A.D. 688-94), Alfred (871-99), and Cnut (1020-23). In the latter, "everyone is to avoid trespassing on my hunting, wherever I wish to have it preserved, on pain of full fine" (Dorothy Whitelock, ed., English Historical Documents c. 500-1042 [London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1955] I, 430). After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror "gathered the woods and hunting preserves of the Saxon kings into a jurisdiction under the forest law he brought from Normandy and added new forests to that core" (Charles R. Young, The Royal Forests of Medieval England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979, p. 150). It is estimated that one-fourth of the area of England was designated royal forest, including entire shires (Huntingdonshire). In his "Coronation Charter," dated 1100, William's youngest son, Henry I, reminded the kingdom that "I have retained the forests in my own hands as my father did before me" (David C. Douglas and George W. Grennaway, eds., English Historical Documents 1042-1189 [London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1968] II, 402). King Stephen made a similar claim in 1136 (II, 403). In the Assize of the Forest (1184), Henry II set forth the first piece of legislation devoted exclusively to the royal forest. It begins by forbidding "that anyone shall transgress against him in regard to his hunting-rights or his forests in any respect." If anyone is convicted of offending his forests, "he wills that full justice be exacted from the offender." To oversee the protection of the forests, the king instructed the sheriff in each shire to appoint twelve knights to guard his venison (red deer, fallow deer, and roe deer) and vert (wood). Baronial discontent with forest law reached its peak in the years leading up to Magna Carta (1215). In the "Articles of the Barons," the barons demanded that King John amend the "wicked customs connected with forests and with foresters and warrens and sheriffs and river-banks . . ." (Harry Rothwell, ed., English Historical Documents 1189-1327 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1975] III, 314). These calls for reform appeared in Magna Carta itself (p. 321), were later omitted (p. 331), and were reissued in expanded form in The Charter of the Forest in 1217 (p. 337). Item ten reads: "No one shall henceforth lose life or limb because of our venison" (p. 339). And item fifteen: "All who . . . have been outlawed for a forest offence only shall be released from their outlawry without legal proceedings . . ." (p. 340). But the harsh penalties continued. In the Statute of Winchester of 1275, Edward I ordered that if anyone is convicted of wrongdoing in the parks or preserves, the plaintiff "shall be awarded appropriate and heavy damages according to the nature of the offense and three years imprisonment." If the accused cannot pay the fine, "he shall abjure the realm," and, if he takes flight and ignores the lawful inquest, "let him be outlawed" (p. 403).

1442 my honde. Child inserts with before this phrase; this does appear in the later texts but is not needed: my honde is an idiomatic Middle English instrumental phrase.

1454 ball in his hode. The phrase refers to the head, and appears to have an ironic, even macabre, reference to games in which the ball was originally a human head.

1473 The sources all have ledesman, which, influenced by lede in line 1474, misses the play on a religious disguise continued in bedesman.

1481 hastly. Child spells hastely, presumably for metrical reasons, but this is not necessary; the same occurs in lines 1565 and 1713.

1506 The second and fourth lines of this stanza are identical in the earlier texts. Child thought this was an error and supplied a new fourth line (Other shyft have not wee). But such repetitions are not uncommon in this kind of text, and this statement before the king is a suitable occasion for such an emphatic celebration of the greenwood ethos.

1512 saynt. Child adds an e, presumably for metrical reasons, but this is not necessary.

1524 I vouch it halfe on the. The source's reading makes good sense: the "abbot" says he would split his money with the outlaws, and Robin acts accordingly. Child's emendation to I wolde vouch it safe on the, while intelligent, is unnecessary.

1534 The king, in disguise, presents his royal image in the form of a seal, which is both in itself revered and the instrument of recognition. The sense of the power of the king's presence and gaze is realized in the story.

1537 targe. According to the OED this is "a name applied in the reigns of the first three Edwards to the King's private or privy seal (perhaps bearing a shield as its device)."

1645 In a little-noted correction in a later volume (V, 297), Child inserts to before our kynge and repunctuates to change speakers: now Robin asks mercy from the king. This is the reading of Copland and White, the later texts. It is also necessary to change your to this so the king does not seem to possess the trystyll- tre. It seems much more likely that the early source is correct and that the king-abbot is still theatrically playing his part - to which Robin responds by asking mercy in turn. Dobson and Taylor retain the original reading, as here.

1663 The idea of Robin holding an alternative lordship, with his own retinue, is clear.

1666 come. Child inserts wyll before the verb, but although this is the construction in line 1661 it is only in the later texts here, and is not needed.

1668 The gap between fitts is not as clear as that in earlier instances. Previous fitts have definite breaks, although fitts five, six, and seven are all rather short. This break appears to have been inserted editorially.

1681-82 The king adopts Robin's green livery in place of religious black. This acknowledges forest values, at least in play. Hall records Henry VIII and his courtiers dressing in green to pay a surprise visit to the queen and her ladies (Knight, 1994, pp. 105-10).

1683 had so, iwys. Child emends to "also i-wys." This appears credible, but a sharper sense is produced if the error is assumed to be in the next line with had repeated from line 1683 instead of hod ("hood"). The point of the passage is that the king's men are changing their black cowls for green hoods and Child's emendation obscures this. So line 1683 is retained as in the original and in line 1684 had is emended to hode.

1689 Theyr bowes bente, and. For no clear reason Child accepts the later texts' apparent editing of the source to They bente theyr bowes: this loses the condensed force of the original as well as its sprightly internal rhyme.

1695 plucke buffet. According to Dobson and Taylor (1976, p. 110), "An archery competition with the forfeit of receiving a 'pluck' or knock for missing the target." Here this seems to have been extended to receiving a blow for losing a bout and so seems a euphemism of more violent encounters with the bow. See Introduction to Robyn and Gandelyn, p. 227. Child notes that plucke-buffet is played in the romance of Richard Coer de Lion and in The Turke and Gowin (III, 55).

1713 Compare the action of Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham (p. 507), which also shows townspeople in fear of the outlaw. Adam Bell has a similar scene, where the townspeople capture the hero William of Cloudesley, lines 141-48. This, like the hue and cry in line 1181, seems a sharp form of opposition between forest and urban values, and suggests a stronger sociopolitical conflict than the usual notion of Robin Hood as a universal hero.

1731 he had spent. The source only has spent and Child inserts he had, which is found in the later texts. While in many cases they seem to amplify a condensed Middle English usage, here their addition appears required.

1742 Full ferre. Child accepts the reading Full fayre which is in a Douce fragment and the later texts, but it makes better sense to accept the earlier reading: Robin is impressed by the distance these young men can shoot.

1747 Child prints compted as an emendation of the source's commytted; the logic of his emendation is correct, but the original must have been comted, which gives rise both to committed and, in the later texts, commended.

1767 To walk barefoot with wool next to the skin implies penance rather than poverty. Robin is suggesting to the king a pilgrimage to the chapel in Barnsdale, but also implies his rejection of the luxuries of court life.

1795 Child inserts dere from a Douce fragment, but it seems unnecessary: though "my master dear" is a common enough phrase in general, there is little sentiment of this kind in the Gest.

1803 Kyrkely. The place of Robin's death is known either as Kirklee (Church Lee) or Kirklees/Kyrklyes (see The Death of Robin Hood, where it is for the most part Kirkly and Churchlee and also Kirklys and Churchlees). There was a priory of this name near Wakefield in West Yorkshire; for a discussion of the location, see Dobson and Taylor, 1976, pp. 19-20. Child emends the source's Kyrkely to Kyrkesly at line 1803 and kept it as Kyrkesly at line 1815. The reverse is necessary: it appears that he was for once mistaken about a fact, as he refers to the site in his Introduction as "Kyrkesly or Kirklees" (III, 50).

1806 Syr Roger is presumably the same figure as Red Roger, Robin Hood's assailant in one version of The Death of Robin Hood, see line 97; he is referred to in the Sloane Life, which presumably draws on the Gest here as elsewhere.

Donkesly. Line 1817 refers to Doncaster. Donkesly could perhaps be an erroneous compound of Doncaster and Kirklees.