+The Text.+--The only text of this ballad is in the Percy Folio, from
which it is here rendered in modern spelling. Although the original is
written continuously, it is almost impossible not to suspect an omission
after 2.2. Child points out, however, that the abrupt transition is
found in other ballads (see _Adam Bell_, 2.2), and Hales and Furnivall
put 2.3,4 in inverted commas as part of Robin's relation of his dream.
Percy's emendation was:
'The woodweete sang, and wold not cese,
Sitting upon the spraye,
Soe lowde, he wakend Robin Hood
In the greenwood where he lay.
Now by my faye, said jollye Robin,
A sweaven[1] I had this night;
I dreamt me of tow mighty yemen
That fast with me can fight.'
+The Story.+--Whether verses have been lost or not, the story has become
confused, as there is nothing to show how Robin knows that the Sheriff
of Nottingham holds Little John captive; yet he makes careful
preparations to pass himself off as Sir Guy, in order to set John free.
There has come down to us a fragment of a play of Robin Hood and the
Sheriff.[2] In this dramatic fragment, an unnamed knight is promised a
reward by the sheriff if he takes Robin Hood. The knight and Robin shoot
and wrestle and fight; Robin wins, cuts off the knight's head, puts on
his clothes, and takes the head away with him. A second scene shows how
the sheriff takes prisoner the other outlaws, amongst whom is Friar
Tuck; but the allocation of the parts in the dialogue is mostly
conjectural.
[Footnote 1: _sweaven_, dream.]
[Footnote 2: See Introduction, p. xxii.]