| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
ROBIN HOOD AND THE MONK.
This excellent ballad, which appears to be the oldest of the class preserved, and is possibly as old as the reign of Edward II. (see Wright's Essays, &c, ii. 174), is found in a manuscript belonging to the public library of the University of Cambridge (Ff. 5, 48). It was first printed by Jamieson, Popular Ballads, ii. 54, afterwards in Hartshorne's Metrical Tales, p. 179, and is here given from the second edition of Ritson's Robin Hood, (ii. 221,) as collated by Sir Frederic Madden.
The story is nearly the same in Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
In somer when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and longe, Hit is full mery in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song.
To se the dere draw to the dale, e
And leve the hilles hee, And shadow hem in the leves grene,
Vndur the grene-wode tre. vol. v. 1 |
||