+Argument.+--The king, coming with a great array to Nottingham to take
Robin Hood and the knight, and finding nothing but a great scarcity of
deer, is wondrous wroth, and promises the knight's lands to any one who
will bring him his head. For half a year the king has no news of Robin;
at length, at the suggestion of a forester, he disguises himself as an
abbot and five of his men as monks, and goes into the greenwood. He is
met and stopped by Robin Hood, gives up forty pounds to him, and alleges
he is a messenger from the king. Thereupon Robin entertains him and his
men on the king's own deer, and the outlaws hold an archery competition,
Robin smiting those that miss. At his last shot, Robin himself misses,
and asks the abbot to smite him in his turn. The abbot gives him such
a buffet that Robin is nearly felled; on looking more closely, he
recognises the king, of whom he and his men ask pardon on their knees.
The king grants it, on condition that they will enter his service. Robin
agrees, but reserves the right to return to the greenwood if he mislikes
the court.
This fytte is based on the story, extremely common and essentially
popular, especially in England, of a meeting between a king in disguise
and one of his subjects. Doubtless there was a ballad of Robin Hood and
the king; but the only one we possess, _The King's Disguise and
Friendship with Robin Hood_, is a late and a loose paraphrase of this
fytte and the next. The commonest stories and ballads of this type in
English are _The King and the Barker_ (_i.e._ Tanner), _King Edward the
Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth_, _King James and the Tinker_, and
_King Henry II. and the Miller of Mansfield_. Usually the point of the
story is the lack of ceremony displayed by the subject, and the royal
good-humour and largesse of the king.
There is only an arbitrary division between Fyttes VII. and VIII.; and
one or two other points will be discussed in introducing the next and
last fytte.