94
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[IIS. V. FtB. 8, 1912.
Landais, in his ' Grand Dictionnaire,'
14th edition, 1862, characterizes " Chevau-
legers " as a horrible barbarism encouraged
by the Academie.
The ' Grammaire des Grammaires,' Paris, 1844, p. 188, says that the custom is to write " chevau-leger " for the singular, and " chevau-legers " for the plural.
ROBEKT PlERPOINT.
THEOPHILUS LEIGH, D.D. (11 S. iv. 429, 637). The following information is from my notes. He was the third son of Theophilus Leigh, 1696-1724, by Mary Brydges, eldest daughter of the eighth Lord Chandos of Sudeley. Theophilus Leigh the younger married Ann, daughter of Edward Bee, Esq., of Berkeley (? Beckley). They had two daughters : (1) Mary, b. 1731, who married in 1762 her first cousin the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who was Rector of Adlestrop, and who succeeded to the Stoneleigh estates in 1806. They left no children. (2) Cassandra, b. 1742, who mar- ried in 1768 the Rev. Samuel Cooke, Rector of Little Bookham ; their cliildren were Theophilus, Mary, and George, of whom only the last seems to have left issue. Some details of the Leigh family will be found in an article, ' An Old Family History,' in The National Review for April, 1907.
R. A. AUSTEN LEIGH.
ROBIN HOOD (11 S. v. 29). In his ' Speci- mens of the Pre-Shakesperean Drama ' (Ginn & Co., 1897), Mr. J. M. Manly gives three examples of Robin Hood plays. They occupy a considerable space in Part III. of the collection, and include ' Robin Hood and the Knight ' (a fragment), ' Robin Hood and the Friar,' and ' Robin Hood and the Potter.' Among the editor's introductory remarks is the : \ statement that " Part III. affords illustrations of important phases of dramatic activity heretofore too little regarded by students." W. B.
The best critical account of the story of Robin Hood will be found in the article on him in the ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy,' which also gives a list of works that may be consulted. The popular account will be found in the introductions to Gutch's ' Lytell Geste of Robin Hode ' (1847) : this work contains the ballads, and mentions many places traditionally connected with Robin Hood, and called by his name. The connexion of Robin Hood with Maid Marian, and of both with the May Day games in England and other countries, is fully dealt with in ' The Medieval Stage,'
by E. K. Chambers (1903), and i.i the disser-
tations at the end of Gutch's work. Other
books worth consulting are Child's ' English
and Scottish Popular Ballads,' v. 39, &c.
(1888); Wright's 'Essays on Medieval
Literature,' ii. 164 ; Academy, vol. xxiv.
(1883) ; Ritson's ' Collection of Robin
Hood Ballads' (1795, 1832, 1885); 'Cata-
logue of MS. Romances in the British
Museum,' ed. C. A. Ward, p. 516 ; ' Percy
Folio MS.,' ed. Hales and Furnivall, i. 1
(1867) ; ' N. & Q.,' passim.
Many plays have been published about the Robin Hood story, e.g., ' Edward I.,' by George Peele (ab. 1580) ; ' George a Green, the Pinder of Wakefield ' (ab. 1580) ; ' The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Hunting don,' by Munday (1601) ; and many others in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries MATTHEW H. PEACOCK.
The May-maid decorated with flowers and ribbons is the undoubted representative of the Flora, the " Mille venit variis florum Dea nexa coronis " of Ovid, transformed into Maid Marian when mimicry of Robin Hood was added to the games among our- selves. But that popular robber was not the ancestor of the King or Lord of the May an appointment which occurs abroad. Maid Marian, or the Queen of the May, was carried in procession upon men's shoulders, and styled " White-pot Queen." There was a French proverb, " Robin a trouve Marian " " a notorious knava hath found a notable quean." And again, taking Marion (Marian) as a proper name for a woman : " Robin a trouve Marion "- " Jack hath met with Gill, a filthy knave with a fulsome queane." There was an old French drama entitled ' Robin et Marian,' a shepherd and shepherdess, in ridicule of which Cotgrave's proverb might have origi- nated, for Robin Hood's paramour is, in his story, Matilda, daughter of Lord Fitz- walter, who was poisoned, and cannot be identified with Maid Marian, evidently of French extraction, and not known before the union of the Robin Hood pageant with the May-games (Fosbroke's ' Antiquities,' pp. 650 and 654). Also consult Strutt's ' Sports and Pastimes of the People of Eng- land,' Brand's ' Antiquities,' Sir Walter Scott's ' Ivanhoe ' and ' The Talisman,' and for bibliography, the article on ' Robin Hood ' in the new ' Encyclopaedia Britan- nica.' There is also Adam De Le Hale on ' Le Jeu de Robin et de Marian,' the French drama of the thirteenth century.
TOM JONES.
