Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard
London
Whilst the poems and ballads on Robin Hood are more plentiful than on any other Englishman, the Chap-books are comparatively scarce, probably on account of the impossibility of condensing his numerous adventures and exploits into the conventional twenty-four pages. There are several editions printed in London, all having similar engravings, of which, however, but three or four belong properly to the work, which are reproduced below, the first being Robin Hood and the Abbot of St. Mary.
“He bound the Abbot to a tree,
And would not let him pass
Before that to his men and he,
His Lordship had said Mass.”
The next is Robin’s attack on the Bishop of Ely.
“He riding down towards the North,
With his aforesaid train
Robin and his men did issue forth,
Them all to entertain.
And with the gallant grey goose wing,
They shew’d to them such play,
That made their horses kick and fling,
And down their riders lay.
Full glad and fain the Bishop was,
For all his thousand men,
To seek what means he could to pass
From out of Robin’s ken.
Two hundred of his men were kill’d,
And fourscore horses good,
Thirty who did as captives yield,
Were brought to the Green Wood—
Which afterwards were ransomed
For twenty marks a man,
The rest set spurs to horse and fled
To the town of Warrington.”
And there is the representation of the treacherous monk bleeding him to death.
“This sad perplexity did cause
A fever as some say,
Which him into confusion draws,
Tho’ by a stranger way.
This deadly danger to prevent,
He hy’d him with all speed
Unto a Nunnery with intent
For health’s sake there to bleed.
A faithless friar did pretend
In love, to let him blood,
But he by falsehood wrought the end
Of famous Robin Hood.”
