Footnotes to “Part the First”, pp. 1–148

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The irregularity or defect of the versification, in this and similar passages, is probably owing to the loss of a line.

This seems to have been, and, in many parts, is still, the name generally used by the vulgar for Erming Street. The course of the real Watling Street was from Dover to Chester.

The Sayles appears to be some place in the neighbourhood of Barnsdale, but no mention of it has elsewhere occurred: though, it is believed, there is a field so called not far from Doncaster.

All his. PCC.

So R. [Rastall.] all thre. W. C. [de Worde and Copland.]

This. R. that. W. C.

Ere. R.

To pay. R. pay. W. C.

Robyn. R. Robyn Hoode. W. C.

Two yere. R.

Knowe. OCC.

It may amende. OCC.

Lancasesshyre. R.

Not. W. C.

By. W. C.

So R. knowe me. W. C.

The fragment of Rastall’s edition ends here.

Also. PCC.

Wyme. PCC.

i.e. by so many score to the hundred, or three hundred for one. It is certainly a very hyperbolical expression: but he measures the cloth in the same way.

Helpe. W. wrappe. C.

Leue. W. lende. C.

The prior, in an abbey, was the officer immediately under the abbot; in priories and conventual cathedrals he was the superior.

This was a “S. Richard, king and confessour, sonne to Lotharius king of Kent, who, for the love of Christ, taking upon him a long peregrination, went to Rome for devotion to that sea, and in his way homward, died at Luca, about the year of Christ, seaven hundred and fifty, where his body is kept untill this day with great veneration, in the oratory and chappell of S. Frigidian, and adorned with an epitaph both in verse and prose” (English Martyrologe, 1608).

There were other saints of the same name, as Richard de la Wich, bishop of Chichester, canonised in 1262; and Richard, bishop of St. Andrews in Calabria. See Drayton’s Polyolbion, song 24.

Leue. W. Sende us. C.

Loke. W. C.

Grete. W. get. C.

Thou. PCC.

Uterysdale. O. CC. Wierysdale is the name of a forest in Lancashire: though it appears, in a subsequent part of this poem, that the knight’s castle was in Not­ting­ham­shire.

Sute. C.

I up pyght. W. up ypyght. C.

Fere. W. in fere. C.

Shote. W.

He sleste (sliced?) W.

Thou wast. C. wast thou. Wh.

Ge. W. f. God.

i.e. while a man might have walked two miles and upward.

Hyed, C.

Whyle. W.

Syght. W. sightes. C.

Wo the worth. W.

Such. W.

He. Old copies.

You. W. Make you yonder preste. C.

Set. ‘shet’?

Yemen. C.

Lytell Johan, O. CC.

Them. O. CC.

To. W.

Nade. W. not in C.

Eyght pounde. W.

To. W.

Corser. W. courser. C.

Gayne. W.

But take not a grefe, sayd the knyght,

That I have be so longe. O. CC.

I twyse. W.

Thi trusty. C.

This care. W.

Syt. W.

And that shoteth al ther best. W.

And they that shote al of the best. C.

Al theyre. W. al of the. C.

They slist. W. he clefte. C.

Belyve. C.

That I after eate no bread. C.

Thou. W.

The bydde. OCC.

Honde and fote. W. foote and hande. C.

That he had Robyn Hode. W.

God the good Robyn. W.

Lady. W.

Late.

Shamly I slayne be. W.

For soth as I the say. W.

Your. W. You may them over take. C.

Shall he never in grene wode be Nor longer dwell with me. W.

It. W.

At. W. That. C.—good] boote. Wh.

Hoode. W. bande. C.

And yf. W.

Your. OCC.

Under the grene wode tre. W.

This saint is also mentioned by Chaucer in the Sompnour’s tale; by Spenser, in his 5th eclogue; in the Downfall of Robert Earl of Hun­ting­ton, 1601; and in one of Ophelia’s songs in Hamlet. (See a note upon this last passage in the edition of 1793, vol. xv. p. 163.) Mr. Steevens’s assertion that “Saint Charity is a known saint among the Roman Catholics,” may be supported by infallible authority. “We read,” says Dr. Douglas, “in the Martyrology on the first of August—Romæ passio sanctarum virginum, Fidei, Spei, et Charitatis, quæ sub Hadriano principe martyris coronam adeptæ sunt” (Criterion, p. 68). Pierre Nadal, commonly called Petrus de Natalibus, in his Catalogus Sanctorum, has given the history of the saints Faith, Hope, and Charity, the daughters of St. Sophia (or Wisdom). Nothing can be too absurd for superstition.

I vouche it halfe on the. W.

Seale. C.

And browne. W.

A wys, W. For that shall be his fyne. C.

Good whyte. W. lilly white. C.

And therto sent I me. W.

Good. OCC.

Another had full sone. W.

Lefte never one. W.

Lughe. W.

Ferre. W.

Commended for. C.

Donkesley. W.

The. OCC.

Ye.

Lefe.

Syde.

Syde.

Hys.

Leffe.

A bad hem stond stell.

The potter.

Leppyd.

Felow he.

A.

Seyde hels.

Went yemen.

Thes.

Lytl.

Yemerey.

Grat.

Yede.

This stanza is misplaced in the MS., coming after the first verse at top of page.

Say.

Seyde sche s’ than.

The.

He.

Loseth.

To.

These two lines are transposed in the MS.

Pottys the.

Bolt yt.

Senyst.

Goe.

That Robyng gaffe me.

Mey they.

Se.

He.

Her.

For.

How haffe.

I leyty.

He had west.

That ye be.

y.

The MS. repeats this line after the following: Het ambellet be mey sey.

Bowhes.

Be ther.

Wher’e.

Closd. We might read: And clos’d were [baith] his een.

The preceding lines of this stanza are wanting in the original.

Gave, begack.

Yeen.

Spok.

Half.

Bound.

Bag.

Cloath.

Thou.

Speed.

Cloaths.

“It should perhaps be swards, i.e. the surface of the ground, viz. ‘when the fields are in their beauty.’”—PERCY. Rather shrobbes (shrubs). The plural of sward was never used by any writer whatever. For shaws the MS. has shales.

Dr. Percy, by the marks he has bestowed on this line, seems to consider it as the yeoman’s reply; but it seems rather a repetition of Robin’s complimentary address.

This in the three former editions of the “Reliques” is improperly altered to ‘but.’

So, according to Percy, reads his MS. He has altered it to ‘backward.’

The title of SIR, Dr. Percy says, was not formerly peculiar to knights; it was given to priests, and sometimes to very inferior personages. If the text did not seem to be in favour of the latter part of this assertion, one might reasonably question its truth. Another instance, at least, it is believed, admitting this to be one, which is by no means certain, cannot be produced.

Sic PC. quere the MS.

An absurd mistake, scarcely worth notice in this place, and which the reader will have it in his own power to correct.

Our.

There is no authority for imputing this execrable practice to our hero or his companions, in any one single instance. If, however, the lex talionis were at all justifiable, they certainly had sufficient provocation to exercise it—not, indeed, upon the clergy, in particular, but upon the king, his ministers, judges, and nobles. “The ancient punishment for killing the king’s deer,” says Dr. Percy, “was loss of eyes and castration: a punishment far worse than death!”

i.e. than he could otherwise have been.