'Rebus huius Roberti gestis tota Britannia in cantibus utitur.'
--MAJOR.
+The Text.+--There are seven texts of the _Gest_, to be distinguished as
follows:--
(i.) begins 'Here begynneth a gest of Robyn Hode'; an undated printed
fragment preserved with other early pieces in a volume in the Advocates'
Library, Edinburgh. It was reprinted in 1827 by David Laing, who then
supposed it to be from the press of Chepman and Myllar, Edinburgh
printers of the early sixteenth century; but he afterwards had reason to
doubt this opinion. It is now attributed to Jan van Doesborch, a printer
from Antwerp. The extent of this fragment is indicated below. Internal
evidence (collected by Child, iii. 40) shows it to be an older text than
(ii.) 'Here begynneth a lytell geste of Robyn hode'--so runs the
title-page; at the head of the poem are added the words--'and his meyne
[= meinie, company], And of the proude Sheryfe of Notyngham.' The
colophon runs 'Explycit. kynge Edwarde and Robyn hode and Lytell Johan
Enprented at London in fletestrete at the sygne of the sone By Wynken de
Worde.' This also is undated, and Child says it 'may be anywhere from
1492 to 1534.' Recent bibliographical research shows that Wynkyn de
Worde moved to Fleet Street at the end of the year 1500, which gives the
downward limit; and as the printer died in 1584, the _Lytell Geste_ must
be placed between those dates.[1] The text is complete save for two
lines (7.1 and 339.1), which have also dropped from the other early
texts. The only known copy is in the Cambridge University Library.
(iii., iv. and v.) Three mutilated printed fragments, containing about
thirty-five, seventy, and fifteen stanzas respectively, preserved
amongst the Douce fragments in the Bodleian (the last presented by J. O.
Halliwell-Phillipps). The first was lent to Ritson in or before 1790 by
Farmer, who thought it to be Rastell's printing; in Ritson's second
edition (1836) he says he gave it to Douce, and states without reason
that it is of de Worde's printing 'probably in 1489.'
(vi.) _A mery geste of Robyn Hoode_, etc., a quarto preserved in the
British Museum, not dated, but printed 'at London vpon the thre Crane
wharfe by wyllyam Copland,' who printed there about 1560. This edition
also contains 'a newe playe for to be played in Maye games, very
plesaunte and full of pastyme.'
(vii.) _A Merry Iest of Robin Hood_, etc., printed at London for Edward
White; no date, but perhaps the 'pastorall plesant commedie' entered to
White in the Stationers' Registers, May 14, 1594. There is a copy of
this in the Bodleian, and another was in the Huth Library.
+The Text+ here given is mainly the Wynkyn de Worde text, except where
the earlier Edinburgh fragment is available; the stanzas which the
latter preserves are here numbered 1.-83.3, 113.4-124.1, 127.4-133.2,
136.4-208.3, and 314.2-349.3, omitting 2.2,3 and 7.1. A few variations
are recorded in the footnotes, it being unnecessary in the present
edition to do more than refer to Child's laborious collation of all the
above texts.
The spelling of the old texts is retained with very few exceptions. The
reason for this is that although the original texts were printed in the
sixteenth century, the language is of the fifteenth, and a number of
Middle English forms remain; these are pointed out by Child, iii. 40,
and elaborately classified by W. H. Clawson, _The Gest of Robin Hood_,
4-5. A possible alternative was to treat the _Gest_ on the plan adopted
for fifteenth-century texts by E. K. Chambers and the present editor in
_Early English Lyrics_ (1907); but in that book the editors were mostly
concerned with texts printed from manuscript, whereas here there is good
reason to suspect the existence of a text or texts previous to those now
available. For the sounded e (ë) I have mostly followed Child.
The _Gest_ is not a single ballad, but a conglomeration of several,
forming a short epic. Ballads representing its component parts are not
now extant; although on the other hand there are later ballads founded
on certain episodes in the _Gest_. The compiler availed himself of
incidents from other traditional sources, but he produced a singularly
original tale.
The word _gest_, now almost obsolete, is derived through Old French from
the Latin _gesta_, 'deeds' or 'exploits.' But as the word was
particularly applied to 'exploits as narrated or recited,' there came
into use a secondary meaning--that of 'a story or romantic tale in
verse,' or 'a metrical chronicle.' The latter meaning is doubtless
intended in the title of the _Gest of Robyn Hode_. A further corruption
may be noticed even in the titles of the later texts as given above;
Copland adds the word 'mery,' which thirty years later causes White to
print a 'Merry Jest.'
I have kept the original divisions of the story into eight 'fyttes,' but
it falls more naturally into three main sections, in each of which a
complete story is narrated. These may he distinguished thus:--
1. +Robin Hood and the Knight.+
(Fyttes First, Second, and Fourth.)
2. +Robin Hood, Little John, and the Sheriff of Nottingham.+
(Fyttes Third, Fifth, and Sixth.)
3. +Robin Hood and King Edward.+
(Fyttes Seventh and Eighth.)
An argument and general notes are prefixed to each fytte.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Charles Sayle puts it 'before 1519' in his
catalogue of the early printed books in the University Library.]