[53] Jonson was led into this mistake by the old play of Robin Hood. See before, p. lv.
[54] This play appears to have been performed upon the stage after the Restoration. The prologue and epilogue (spoken by Mr. Portlock) are to be found in num. 1009 of the Sloane MSS. It was republished, with a continuation and notes, by Mr. Waldron, of Drury-lane Theatre, in 1783.
[55] A most stupid pantomime on this subject, under the title of “Merry Sherwood, or Harlequin, forester,” was performed in December 1795, at the Theatre-royal, Covent-garden.
[56] 1st edit. 1550, fo. xxvi. b. (Randolf is misprinted Rand of.) Subsequent editions, even of the same year, reading only “Randall of Chester.” Mr. Warton (History of English Poetry, ii. 179) makes this genius, whom he calls a frier, say “that he is well acquainted with the rimes of Randall of Chester;” and these rimes he, whimsically enough, conjectures to be the old Chester Whitsun plays; which, upon very idle and nonsensical evidence, he supposes to have been written by Randal Higden, the compiler of the Polychronicon. Of course, if this absurd idea were at all well founded, the rimes of Robin Hood must likewise allude to certain Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire plays, written by himself. The “Randolf erl of Chester” here meant is Randal Blundevile, the last earl of that name, who had been in the Holy Land, was a great warrior and patriot, and died in 1231.
The reading of the original edition is confirmed by a very old manuscript in the Cotton Library (Vespasian, B. XVI.) differing considerably from the printed copies, which gives the passage thus:
“I can nouzt perfiitli my pater-noster as a prest it syngeth: I can rymes of Robyn Hood, of Rondolf erl of Chestre, Ac of oure lorde ne of oure ladi the leste that ever was maked.”
The speaker himself could have told Mr. Warton he was no frier:
“I have ben prieste & person passynge thyrty winter, Yet can I nether solfe, ne singe, ne sayntes lyves read; But I can find in a fielde or in a furlong an hare, Better than in Beatus vir or in Beati omnes Construe one clause well, & kenne it to my parishens.”
[57] “De quibus stolidum wigus hianter in comœdiis & tragædiis prurienter festum faciunt, & super ceteras ‘romancias mimos & bardanos cantitare delectantur” (Scotichronicon, à Hearne, p. 774). Comedies and tragedies are—not dramatic compositions, but—poems of a comic or serious cast. Romance in Spanish, and romance in French, signify—not a tale of chivalry, but—a vulgar ballad, at this day.