+The Text+ is modernised from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge
(MS. Ff. v. 48), which belongs to the middle of the fifteenth century.
We have also a single leaf of another MS. version, of about the same
date, preserved amongst the Bagford Ballads in the British Museum,
but this contains a bare half-dozen stanzas.
+The Story+ might be called a counterpart to _Robin Hood and Guy of
Gisborne_, inasmuch as it has Little John for its hero, and relates how
he set his master free, although Robin had lost his temper with him in
the morning. A most unfortunate hiatus after 30.2 prevents us from
learning how Robin's fate was reported to his men; but as it stands it
is a perfect ballad, straightforward, lively, and picturesque. The first
five stanzas, which make a delightful little lyric in themselves,
breathe the whole spirit of the greenwood.