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EOBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR. 187
The tane was wedded to Robin Hood, 65
And the tither to Little John; And it was a' owing to their step-mother
That garrM them leave their hame. |
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ROBIN HOOD AND THE BEGGAR.
" Robin Hood and his fellow, Little John," says Motherwell, " were popular with the minstrels of Scotland as they were with those of England. Our early poets and historians never tired of alluding to songs current in their own times, relative to these waithmen and their merry men. Even to this day there are fragments of songs regarding them, traditionally extant in Scotland, which have not yet found their way into any printed collection of ballads commemorative of these celebrated outlaws. Were they carefully gathered they would form an interesting addition to Ritson's Robin Hood. In that collection, the ballad of Robin Hood and the Beggar is evidently the production of a Scottish minstrel, pretty early stall copies of which were printed both at Aberdeen and Glasgow."—Minstrelsy, p. xliii.
Ritson printed this ballad (Robin Hood, ii. 97,) from a modern copy printed at Newcastle. He remarks that a similar story may be found in Le Moyen de par-venir, (i. 304, ed. 1739, Comment un moine se dibar-asse des voleurs.~)
We have adopted a superior version given by Gutch, |
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