owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormentors might hap to break his head." The soudain or soldan, was a name given to the Sarazen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the word sultan), as the soldan of Egypt, the soudan of Persia, the sowdan of Babylon, &c., who were generally represented as accompanied with grim Sarazens, whose business it was to punish and torment Christians. I cannot conclude this short memoir, without observing that the hands of such Tarmagants." [So the orig. | maker]; yet if one should cal him by his dated May 2, 1593, preserved by the care of the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith, Fellow of Dulw. Coll.]-Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I could have such a fellow whipt for oredoing Termagant: it out-herods Herod." A. iii. sc. 3.-By degrees, the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman; to whom alone it is now confined, and this the rather as, I suppose, the character of Ter-French romancers, who had borrowed the magant was anciently represented on the stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats. Another frequent character in the old pageants or interludes of our ancestors, was the sowdan, or soldan, representing a grim eastern tyrant: this appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals [p. 458]. In a stageplay, "the people know right well, that he that plaieth the sowdain is percase a sowter [shoe word termagant from us, and applied it as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte: and from them La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales.-This may be added to the other proofs adduced in this volume, of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each others' romances. VII. Sir Patrick Spence, A SCOTTISH BALLAD, but whose story hath nothing in common with this of the ballad. As Wood was the most noted warrior of Scotland, it is probable that, like the Theban Hercules, he hath engrossed the renown of other heroes. THE king sits in Dumferling toune, -is given from two MS. copies, transmit- | who flourished in the time of our Edw. IV., ted from Scotland. In what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal expedition happened that proved so destructive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion, that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James III. (a law which was frequently repeated after-Up and spak an eldern knicht, wards), "That there be na schip frauched out of the realm, with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons-day and Jude, unto the feast of the purification of our lady called Candelmess." Jam. III. Parlt. 2, ch. 15. In some modern copies, instead of Patrick Spence hath been substituted the name of Sir Andrew Wood, a famous Scottish admiral Drinking the blude-reid wine: Sat at the kings richt kne: The king has written a braid letter,* 5 10 *A braid letter, i. e. open, or patent; in opposition to close Rolls. tudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil power. We have here a ballad of Robin Hood, all the recesses of those unfrequented soli(from the Editor's folio MS.) which was never before printed, and carries marks of much greater antiquity than any of the common popular songs on this subject. The severity of those tyrannical forest-laws, that were introduced by our Norman kings, and the great temptation of breaking them by such as lived near the royal forests, at a time when the yeomanry of this kingdom were every where trained up to the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to the woods for shelter; and forming into troops, endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their delinquency. The ancient punishment for killing the king's deer was loss of eyes and castration, a punishment far worse than death. This will easily account for the troops of banditti which formerly lurked in the royal forests, and, from their superior skill in archery and knowledge of Among all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of this ballad, whose chief residence was in Shirewood forest, in Nottinghamshire; and the heads of whose story, as collected by Stow, are briefly these. "In this time [about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard I.] were many robbers and outlawes, among the which Robin Hood, and Little John, renowned theeves, continued in woods, despoyling and robbing the goods of the rich. They killed none but such as would invade them, or by resistance for their own defence. "The saide Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with such spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested; poore mens goods he spared, abundantlie relieving them with that which by theft he got from abbeys and the houses of rich carles: whom Maior (the historian) blameth for his rapine and theft, but of all theeves he affirmeth him to be the prince, and the most gentle theefe." Annals, p. 159. The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the common people, who, not content to celebrate his memory by innumerable songs and stories, have erected him into the dignity of an earl. Indeed, it is not impossible, but our hero, to gain the more respect from his followers, or they to derive the more credit to their profession, may have given rise to such a report themselves: for we find it recorded in an epitaph, which, if genuine, must have been inscribed on his tombstone near the nunnery of Kirklees in Yorkshire; where (as the story goes) he was bled to death by a treacherous nun to whom he applied for phlebotomy: *Hear undernead dis laitl stean This Epitaph appears to me suspicious: however, a late Antiquary has given a pedigree of Robin Hood, which, if genuine, shows that he had real pretensions to the Earldom of Huntington, and that his true name was Robert Fitz-ooth.† Yet the most ancient poems on Robin Hood make no mention of this Earldom. He is expressly asserted to have been a yeoman‡ in a very old legend in verse preserved in the archives of the public library at Cambridge, in eight fyttes or parts, printed in black letter, quarto, thus inscribed: "Here begynneth a lytell geste of Robyn hode and his meyne, and of the proude sheryfe of Notyngham." The first lines are, * See Thoresby's Ducat. Leod. p. 576, Biog. Brit. vi. 3933. † Stukeley, in his Palæographia Britannica, No. II. 1746. See also the following ballad, v. 147. Num. D. 5, 2. "Robyn was a proude out-lawe, The printer's colophon is, " Explicit Kinge Edwarde and Robin Hode and Lyttel Johan. Enprinted at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the sone by Wynkin de Worde."- -In Mr. Garrick's Collection* is a different edition of the same poem “C Imprinted at London upon the thre Crane wharfe by Wyllyam Copland," containing at the end a little dramatic piece on the subject of Robin Hood and the Friar, not found in the former in Maye games very plesaunte and full of copy, called, "A newe playe for to be played pastyme. C(..) D.” with observing, that the hero of this ballad I shall conclude these preliminary remarks was the favourite subject of popular songs so early as the time of K. Edward III. In the Visions of Pierce Plowman, written in that reign, a monk says, I can rimes of Roben Hod and Randal of But of our Lorde and our Lady, I lerne See also in Bp. Latimer's Sermons† a very curious and characteristical story, which shows what respect was shown to the memory of our archer in the time of that prelate. The curious reader will find many other particulars relating to this celebrated Outlaw, in Sir John Hawkins's Hist. of Music, vol. iii. p. 410, 4to. For the catastrophe of Little John, who, it seems, was executed for a robbery on Arborhill, Dublin (with some curious particulars relating to his skill in archery,) see Mr. J. C. Walker's ingenious "Memoir on the Armour and Weapons of the Irish," p. 129, annexed to his "Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish." Dublin, 1788, 4to. Some liberties were, by the Editor, taken Old Plays, 4to. K. vol. x. † Ser. 6th before K. Ed. Apr. 12, fol. 75, Gilpin's Life of Lat. p. 122. with this ballad; which, in this Edition, hath | Ah! John, by me thou settest noe store, been brought nearer to the folio MS. WHEN shaws beene sheene, and shradds full fayre, And leaves both large and longe, Itt is merrye walking in the fayre forrèst The woodweele sang, and wold not cease, Soe lowde, he awakened Robin Hood, Now by my faye, sayd jollye Robìn, Sweavens are swift, master, quoth John Buske yee, bowne yee, my merry men all, For Ile goe seeke yon wight yoemen, In greenwood where the bee. 5 And that I farley finde; How offt send I my men beffore, And tarry my selfe behinde? It is no cunning a knave to ken, And a man but heare him speake; As often wordes they breeden bale, The gates* he knoweth eche one. 10 But when he came to Barnesdale, 45 50 15 Then the cast on their gownes of grene, And tooke theyr bowes each one; And they away to the greene forrèst A shooting forth are gone. 25 Untill they come to the merry greenwood, Where they had gladdest bee, 30 His shoote it was but loosely shott, Yet flewe not the arrowe in vaine; For itt mett one of the sherriffes men, Good William a Trent was slaine. It had bene better of William a Trent But as it is said, when men be mett 40 The sheriffe hath taken Little John, Ver. 1, For Shaws the MS. has shales: and shradds should perhaps be swards: i. e. the surface of the ground: viz. "when the fields were in their beauty:" or perhaps shades. i. e. ways, passes, paths, ridings. Gate is a common word in the North for way. Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe, 85 | But Robin he shott far better than hee, And hanged hye on a hill. But thou mayst fayle of thy purpose, quoth For he clave the good pricke wande. The common epithet for a sword or other offensive weapon, in the old metrical romances, is brown. As "brown brand," or "brown sword, brown bill," &c.; and sometimes even "bright brown sword." Chaucer applies the word rustie in the same sense; thus he describes the reve:"And by his side he bare a rusty blade." Prol. ver. 620. And even thus the god Mars : "And in his hand he had a rousty sword." Test of Cressid. 188. Spenser has sometimes used the same epithet. See Warton's Observ. vol. ii. p. 62. It should seem, from this par ticularity, that our ancestors did not pique themselves upon keeping their weapons bright: perhaps they deemed it more honourable to carry them stained with the blood of their enemies. |