THE VIRGINIA TEACHER VOLUME II JUNE, 1921 NUMBER 6 I Hood. As a subject for pageant and festival the Robin Hood stories are superb. But, at A TEACHERS' GUIDE TO SHER- any rate, in some way the children in our schools should be made familiar with this de- WOOD FOREST lightful character and his boon companions. At some time during the school course we When Shakespeare wished to show the should consciously make an attempt to en- delightfulness of life in the forest of Arden, rich the minds of our students by introducing he recalled and mentioned the great (folk them to Sherwood Forest. This paper is hero of the English people, Robin Hood. In merely propaganda. In it I wish to accom- As You Like It, Oliver asks: 'Where will plish just one thing: to interest teachers in the old Duke live?" Charles answers: "They the Robin Hood material. Of course, not say he is already in the forest of Arden, and very much of it can be used in the schools. a many merry men with him; and there they But a background of information will enable live like the old Robin Hood of England; . us better to present the subject to our stu- and fleet the time carelessely as they did in dents; and, incidentally, it will prove a the golden world." To one who stops to source of pleasure to ourselves. thinks about it a moment, it is a singular The historic Robin Hood is hidden behind circumstance. Here we have an outlawed a heavy veil of time. When he actually individual of the twelfth or thirteenth cen- lived, or indeed whether or not he ever really tury. Of his historic career we know noth- existed, is a question that probably will re- ing with certainty. And yet his name is a main forever unanswered. His biographers household word. In the sixteenth century he fall into two groups; those who insist that has become such a popular hero that no May he really lived at some definite period, and Day is complete Without him. At the end those who deny altogether that he ever existed of the eighteenth century ballads are being in the flesh. The diffifculty with the believers everywhere chanted, of which he is the hero. is that they can not agree among themselves. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries he Some place Robin Hood in the later half of is still common literary property, appealing the twelfth century; others, in the first part to poets as wide apart in time and spirit as of the thirteenth; and still others point out Sir Walter Scott and Alfred Noyes. It is the absurdities of the calculations, and in- probably not too much to say that there is sist that he had his being in the early four- no English king, not even Arthur, and no teenth century. In any case, we have abso- other English hero who so appeals to the lutely no contemporary historical references imagination, or who is so often mentioned in to our hero. He is first mentioned by a literature. historian in John of Fordun's Chronica Gen- Robin Hood has been an element in the tis Scotorum, which appeared about 13B4, consciousness of the English race for the last fifty years after his death by the most gener- seven hundred years, and it therefore seems ous estimate. Fordun was a Scottish chron- only fair that every child should at some icler who wrote a history of Scotland down time in his school life he brought into inti- to his own time. He places Robin Hood in mate contact with this fascinating hero. the reign of Henry HI, saying: Perhaps it can best be done through Scott's "About this time (1266) . lived those Ivanhoe. Perhaps the old ballads themselves famous robbers Robin Hood and Little John will do. If the ballads are not available, and their fellows, of whom the foolfsh vulgar in comedies and tragedies make lewd enter- there can be no better source of inspiration tainments, and are delighted to hear the jes- than Howard Pyle's masterly transcription ters and minstrels sing them above all other of them, The Merry Adventures of Robin ballads." ^54 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. n. NO. 6 Modern scholarship insists, however, that reputed to have been Earl of Huntington; a this reference was not the work of Fordun title to which, in the latter part of his life, himself, but that it was inserted by his dis- at least, he appears to have some sort of pre- ciple and follower, Walter Bower, who re- tension. In his youth he is reported to have vised and continued the work of his master been of a wild and extravagant disposition." up to the year 1450. In any case, it would And so the story continues, telling of his not be wise to accept the work of Fordun as flight to the forest, the gathering of his band, entirely truthful, for we can not forget that their free life in the woods, their deeds and he is Holinshed's source for Banquo, Fleance, their exploits, until "... the infirmities of and others Scotch heroes, who have been old age increasing upon him, and desirous to frowned out of existence by history. But be relieved, in a fit of sickness, by being let this reference did its work, and nearly all blood, he applied for that purpose to the the historians of Robin Flood, until the be- prioress of Kirkleys-nunnery in Yorkshire, ginning of the nineteenth century, state as an his relation, ... by whom he was treacher- accepted fact that he lived in the first half ously bled to death. This event happened on of the thirteenth century. the 18th of November, 1247, . about the One of the prominent and important 87th of his age." Now, I am not one of scholars in our group of believers is Joseph those who insist on having every fact sup- Ritson, the English antiquarian. In the in- ported by an affidavit. I can swallow a fact tervals between his fierce quarrels with with any man. But, there are, to say the Wharton, and Steevens, and Dr. Johnson, least, some details of Ritson's story that seem and Bishop Percy, (in which he was nearly open to doubt—"the 18th of November, always right in matter and wrong in man- 1247," for example—and I am afraid that ners) he managed to find time to gather and we must conclude that it contains more fic- edit the first real collection of Robin Hood tion than fact. Nevertheless, Ritson's edition Ballads, to ferret out references to the famous is exceedingly valuable, and it must not be outlaw from an unbelievable number of lit- neglected by one who is interested in the lore erary works, and to write an "authentic" of Robin Hood. Life of Robin Hood. His work appeared There are many nineteenth century inves- in 1795, and we must hope that it won im- tigators who believe that Robin Hood lived mediate success, for the unfortunate author at a late period. One of the most important showed signs of mental collapse as early as of this group is John M. Gutch, who issued 1796, and he became completely insane on in 1847 a new edition of the Lytell Gests of the 10th of September, 1803. He barracaded Robin Hood, with Other Ancient and Mod- himself in his chambers at Gray's Inn, made ern Ballads and Songs Relating to This Cel- a bonfire of his manuscripts, and was finally ebrated Teoman, to which is Prefixed his forcibly removed to Hoxton, where he died History and Character, Grounded upon other two weeks later. Fortunately for us, he Documents than those made Use of by his could not destroy his issued volumes on Robin Former Biographer, 'Mister Ritson 1 Gutch Hood, and they live to keep alive the memory reprints the invaluable notes of Ritson, and of poor, hard-working, acrimonious, half-mad adds many new ones, so that this is the most Joseph Ritson. complete and useful edition until that of "Robin Hood was born at Locksley," he Professor Child, in 1888. He scorns Rit- tells us, "in the county of Nottingham, in the son s facts," however, and maintains that reign of King Henry the second, and about Robin Hood was a follower of Simon de the year of Christ 1160. His extraction was Montfort; and that after the defeat of that noble, and his true name was Robert Fitz- nobleman at Evesham, in 1265, Robin Hood ooth, wbich vulgar promunciation easily cor- kept up the struggle for liberty by a sort of rupted into Robin Hood." The corruption guerilla warfare from his stronghold in the of Robert Fitzooth into Robin Hood offered forest. He suggests that Robin Hood was no difficulties whatever to the men who could born in 1225 and lived until about 1294. insist seriously that his own name, Ritson, Another interesting theorist is the Rev. Was a short pronunciation for Richardson! But to go on with his story: "He (Robin iPubllslied In London, by Longman, Brown, Hood) is frequently styled, and commonly Green and Longmans. June, 1921] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 155 Joseph Hunter,2 who claims that both Ritson the jovial Friar Tuck with the "spirit of and Gutch are wrong. Robin Hood was frost and snow," it must be admitted that born, he insists, in the reign of Edward I, there are elements in the story that suggest abount 1285, and lived into the reign of the exploits of Robin Goodfellow and the Edward HE Mr.