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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales > Robin Hood and Maid Marian

Robin Hood and Maid Marian

ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN: NOTES


4 Marian's residence in the north is probably suggested more by Parker's A True Tale and its stress on the north than by any older connection with Yorkshire or even Scotland.

10 While Helen in line 7 is a familiar classical reference to beauty, Rosamond and Jane Shore are famous medieval English beauties: "Fair Rosamond" was Henry II's great love, and Jane Shore a mistress of Edward IV. Neither they, nor Helen, had particularly happy careers, but there seems no irony intended.

14 Robin is very rarely identified as the Earl in a ballad. The other instances are Parker's True Tale and, simply through attaching his epitaph, Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight, Child no. 153. The reference here is part of the unusual and unqualified gentrification of this ballad.

24 The green wood has, it seems, become conventionally merry even when the hero has a sad and sorrowfull heart (line 25).

34 The reason why Marian is so heavily armed while dressed as a page is, like her failure to hear his voice until after the fight, one of the logical incoherences -- and conventions -- of this ballad.

38 The text places a comma after hee as well as before; Child only prints the first, and this changes the stress for the worse.

62 The text has the had, and while in early texts the is often used for they, in this case it seems to be a printer's error and should be emended, as Child does.

74 The text has vente, which could perhaps mean "vaunt" or "celebration." Percy's handwritten copy of this ballad here reads venie. Child speculates that venie, presumably a variant for veine is correct and was misread by the compositor as vente. Though vente is technically the harder reading and might therefore be preferred, the phrase in a brave veine has just the conventional character of this ballad, and is accepted here.
74 The text has only the bouls; Child's emendation to their seems unnecessary.

84 Robin and Marian, though lord and lady, do not live off their lands. They are in some form of exile, but there also seems to be a rapprochement here between the gentrified overlay of this ballad and the "yeoman" basis to the tradition. The ballad does not finally re-establish Robin as Earl, so perhaps indicating its hybrid status, but also suggesting Parker's influence: his version ends with Robin's death, and so is not a full gentrification narrative in that the dispossessed nobleman is not restored to his dignities.

 




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 		 A bonny fine maid of a noble degree,
With a hey down down a down down
Maid Marian calld by name,
Did live in the North, of excellent worth,
For she was a gallant dame.

For favour and face, and beauty most rare,
Queen Hellen shee did excell;
For Marian then was praisd of all men
That did in the country dwell.

'Twas neither Rosamond nor Jane Shore,
Whose beauty was clear and bright,
That could surpass this country lass,
Beloved of lord and knight.

The Earl of Huntington, nobly born,
That came of noble blood,
To Marian went, with a good intent,
By the name of Robin Hood.

With kisses sweet their red lips meet,
For shee and the earl did agree;
In every place, they kindly imbrace,
With love and sweet unity.

But fortune bearing these lovers a spight,
That soon they were forced to part;
To the merry green wood then went Robin Hood,
With a sad and sorrowfull heart.

And Marian, poor soul, was troubled in mind,
For the absence of her friend;
With finger in eye, shee often did cry,
And his person did much comend.

Perplexed and vexed, and troubled in mind,
Shee drest her self like a page,
And ranged the wood to find Robin Hood,
The bravest of men in that age.

With quiver and bow, sword, buckler, and all,
Thus armed was Marian most bold,
Still wandering about to find Robin out,
Whose person was better then gold.

But Robin Hood, hee, himself had disguisd,
And Marian was strangly attir'd,
That they provd foes, and so fell to blowes,
Whose vallour bold Robin admir'd.

They drew out their swords, and to cutting they went,
At least an hour or more,
That the blood ran apace from bold Robins face,
And Marian was wounded sore.

"O hold thy hand, hold thy hand," said Robin Hood,
"And thou shalt be one of my string,
To range in the wood with bold Robin Hood,
To hear the sweet nightingall sing."

When Marian did hear the voice of her love,
Her self shee did quickly discover,
And with kisses sweet she did him greet,
Like to a most loyall lover.

When bold Robin Hood his Marian did see,
Good lord, what clipping was there!
With kind imbraces, and jobbing of faces,
Providing of gallant cheer.

For Little John took his bow in his hand,
And wandring in the wood,
To kill the deer, and make good chear,
For Marian and Robin Hood.

A stately banquet they had full soon,
All in a shaded bower,
Where venison sweet they had to eat,
And were merry that present hour.

Great flaggons of wine were set on the board,
And merrily they drunk round
Their boules of sack, to strengthen the back,
Whilst their knees did touch the ground.

First Robin Hood began a health
To Marian his onely dear,
And his yeomen all, both comly and tall,
Did quickly bring up the rear.

For in a brave veine they tost off the bouls,
Whilst thus they did remain,
And every cup, as they drunk up,
They filled with speed again.

At last they ended their merryment,
And went to walk in the wood,
Where Little John and Maid Marian
Attended on bold Robin Hood.

In sollid content together they livd,
With all their yeomen gay;
They livd by their hands, without any lands,
And so they did many a day.

But now to conclude, an end I will make
In time, as I think it good,
For the people that dwell in the North can tell
Of Marian and bold Robin Hood.


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dislike

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reveal




embracing
thrusting







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sack (dry white wine)







manner; (see note)











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