The English and Scottish Popular Ballads/Part 5/Chapter 123
A. 'Robine Hood and Ffryer Tucke,' Percy MS., p. 10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
B. 'The Famous Battel between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer.' a. Garland of 1663, No 11. b.[1] Pepys, I, 78, No 37. c. Garland of 1670. d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b. e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86. f. Douce, II, 184.
B also in the Roxburghe collection, III, 16.
B d was printed in Ritson's Robin Hood, 1795, II, 58, corrected by b and compared with e; and in Evans's Old Ballads, 1777-1784, I, 136, probably from the Aldermary garland.
The opening verses of A are of the same description as those with which Nos 117, 118, 119, and others begin. 1 has been corrupted, and 2 also, one would think, as there is no apparent reason for maids weeping and young men wringing hands in the merry month of May. In the first stanza,
There are 13 in May;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
month in the first and the fourth line might be changed to moon, to justify thirteen in the second, and to accord with moon in the third. For in May, in the second line, we may read, I say, or many say. The first stanza of No 140, B, runs:
As I hear many say;
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.
Nearly, or quite, one half of A has been. torn from the manuscript, but there is no reason to suppose that the story differed much from that of B.
Upon Little John's killing a hart at five hundred foot, Robin Hood exclaims that he would ride a hundred mile to find John's match. Scadlock, with a laugh, says that there is a friar at Fountains Abbey who will beat both John and Robin, or indeed Robin and all his yeomen. Robin Hood takes an oath never to eat or drink till he has seen that friar. (Cf. No 30, I, 275, 279.) Robin goes to Fountains Abbey, and ensconces his men in a fern-brake. He finds the friar walking by the water, well armed, and begs [orders, B] the friar to carry him over.[2] The friar takes Robin on his back, and says no word till he is over; then draws his sword and bids Robin carry him back, or he shall rue it. Robin takes the friar on his back, and says no word till he is over; then bids the friar carry him over once more. The friar, without a word, takes Robin on his back, and when he comes to the middle of the stream throws him in. When both have swum to the shore, Robin lets an arrow fly, which the friar puts by with his buckler. The friar cares not for his arrows, though Robin shoots till his arrows are all gone. They take to swords, and fight with them for six good hours, when Robin begs the boon of blowing three blasts on his horn. The friar gives him leave to blow his eyes out: fifty bowmen come raking over the lea. The friar in turn asks a boon, to whistle thrice in his fist. Robin cares not how much he whistles:: fifty good bandogs come raking in a row. Here there is a divergence. According to A, the friar will match every man with a dog, and himself with Robin. God forbid, says Robin; better be matched with three of the dogs than with thee. Stay thy tikes, and let us be friends. In B, two dogs go at Robin and tear his mantle from his back; all the arrows shot at them the dogs catch in their mouths. Little John calls to the friar to call off his dogs, and enforces his words by laying half a score of them dead on the plain with his bow. The friar cries, Hold; he will make terms. Robin Hood offers the friar clothes and fee to forsake Fountains Abbey for the green-wood. We must infer, as in the parallel case of the Pinder of Wakefield, that the offer is accepted.[3] But the Curtal Friar, like the Pinder again, plays no part in Robin Hood story out of his own ballad.
Robin Hood and the Friar, in both versions, is in a genuinely popular strain, and was made to sing, not to print. Verbal agreements show that A and B have an earlier ballad as their common source; but of this, one or the other has retained but little. I cannot think that B 33, 34 are of the original matter. It is a derogation from Robin Hood's prowess that he should have his mantle torn from his back, and we may ask why the dogs do not catch Little Jolin's arrows as well as others.
Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was a Cistercian monastery, dating from the twelfth century. (It is loosely called a nunnery in A 4.) The friar is called "cutted" in A and "curtal" in B, and these words have been held to mean short-frocked, and therefore to make the friar a Franciscan. Staveley, The Romish Horseleech, speaking of the Franciscans, says at p. 214, Experience shews that in some countrys, where friers used to wear short habits, the order was presently contemned and derided, and men called them curtaild friers. Cited by Douce, Illustrations of Shakspere, I, 61. So, according to Douce, we may probably understand the curtal friar to be a curtailed friar, and in like manner of the curtal dogs. "Cutted" in A can signify nothing but short-frocked. In the title of that version, though not in the text, the friar is called Tuck, which means that he is "ytukked bye," like Chaucer's Friar John, but not that he wears a short frock. The friar in the play (see below) has a "long cote," v. 46. But I apprehend that B has the older word in curtal, and that curtal is simply curtilarius, and applied to both friar and dogs because they had the care and keeping of the curtile, or vegetable garden, of the monastery.[4]
The title of A in the MS. is Robin Hood and Friar Tuck; from which it follows that the copyist, or some predecessor, considered the stalwart friar of Fountains Abbey to be one with the jocular friar of the May-games and the morris dance. But Friar Tuck, the wanton and the merry, like Maid Marian, owes his association with Robin Hood primarily to these popular sports, and not in the least to popular ballads. In the truly popular ballads Friar Tuck is never heard of, and in only two even of the broadsides, Robin Hood and Queen Katherine and Robin Hood's Golden Prize, is he so much as named; in both no more than named, and in both in conjunction with Maid Marian.
'The Play of Robin Hood,' the first half of which is based on the present ballad, calls the friar Friar Tuck, and represents him accordingly. See the Appendix. He is also called Tuck in the play founded on Guy of Gisborne.
In Munday's Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington, Friar Tuck is by implication identified with the friar who fell into the well, Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, VIII, 185; and Mr Chappell is consequently led to say, at p. 390 of his Popular Music,' that the ballad of the Friar in the Well was in all probability a tale of "Robin Hood's fat friar."
Cavilling at this phrase of Shakspere's only so far as to observe that the friar of the traditional Robin Hood ballad is as little fat as wanton, I need but say that the truth of the case had been already accurately expressed by Mr Chappell at p. 274 of his invaluable work: "the story is a very old one, and one of the many against monks and friars in which not only England, but all Europe, delighted."
The boon to blow three blasts on his horn, B 25, is also asked by Robin of the Shepherd, No 134, st. 15. The reply made by the Shepherd, st. 16, is, If thou shouldst blow till tomorrow morn, I scorn one foot to flee. In R. H. Rescuing Three Squires, B 25, when Robin, disguised as a beggar, intimates to the sheriff that he may blow his horn, the answer is nearly the same as here: Blow till both thy eyes fall out. In No 127, st. 34 f, Robin asks a boon of the Tinker, without specifying what the boon is; the Tinker refuses; Robin blows his horn while the Tinker is not looking. In No 135, st. 16 f, Robin asks the three keepers to let him blow one blast on his horn, and they refuse. This boon of [three] blasts on a horn is not an important matter in these Robin Hood ballads, but it may be noticed as a feature of other popular ballads in which an actor is reduced to extremity: as in the Swedish ballad Stolts Signild, Arwidsson, II, 128, No 97, and the corresponding Signild og hendes Broder, Danske Viser, IV, 31, No 170, in both of which the answer to the request is, Blow as much as you will. So in a Russian bylina, when Solomon is to be hanged, he obtains permission three several times to blow his horn, and is told to blow as much as he will, and upon the third blast his army comes to the rescue: Rybnikof, II, No 52, Jagić, in Archiv für slavische Philologie, I, 104 ff; Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of Russia, p. 287 f; also F. Vogt, Salman und Morolf, p. 104, sts 494 ff.[5] Three cries take the place of three blasts, upon occasion as in the case of the unhappy maid in the German forms of No 4, I, 32 ff, where also the maid is sometimes told to cry as much as she wants, and in Gesta Romanorum, Oesterley, cap. 108, p. 440.
B is translated by Anastasius Grün, p. 124. Percy MS., p. 10; Hales and Furnivall, I, 26.
There are thirteen, I say;
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.
Young men their hands done wringe,
*******
3 'I'le . . pe . . . . .
Over may noe man for villanie: '
'I'le never eate nor drinke,' Robin Hood sa[id],
'Till I that cutted friar see.'
A litle from that nunery;
Sayes, If you heare my litle horne blow,
Then looke you come to me.
Wheras that fryer lay,
He was ware of the fryer where he stood,
And to him thus can he say.
His coppe all shone of steele,
A fayre sword and a broad buckeler
Beseemed him very weell.
'Good fellow, as thou may see;
Wilt beare [me] over this wild water,
Ffor sweete Saint Charity?'
He had done none of long before;
He hent up Robin Hood on his backe,
And over he did him beare.
A longe sword there he drew:
'Beare me backe againe, bold outlawe,
Or of this thou shalt have enoughe.'
And neither sayd good nor ill;
Till he came ore that wild water,
The yeoman he walked still.
A span aboue his knee;
S[ay]s, Beare me ore againe, thou cutted f[ryer]
·······
·····good bowmen
[C]ame raking all on a rowe.
'Thou thinkes I shall be shente;
I thought thou had but a man or two,
And thou hast [a] whole conuent.
Now giue me leaue to whistle another;
I cold not bidd thee noe better play
And thou wert my owne borne brother.'
pray God thou neere be still;
It is not the futing in a fryers fist
That can doe me any ill.'
A loud blast he did blow;
Then halfe a hundred good bandoggs
Came raking all on a rowe.
·······
'Euery dogg to a man,' said the cutted fryar,
'And I my selfe to Robin Hood.'
'That euer that soe shold bee;
I had rather be mached with three of the tikes
Ere I wold be matched on thee.
'And freindshipp I'le haue with thee;
But stay thy tikes, thou fryar,' he said,
'And saue good yeomanry.'
A lowd blast he did blow;
The doggs the coucht downe euery one,
They couched downe on a rowe.
'Haue done and tell it me;'
'If that thou will goe to merry greenwood,
*******
a. Garland of 1663, No 11. b. Pepys, I, 78, No 37. c. Garland of 1670, No 10. d. Wood, 401, leaf 15 b. e. Pepys, II, 99, No 86. f. Douce, II, 184.
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men
Were disposed to play.
And some would use artillery:
' Which of you can a good bow draw,
A good archer to be?
Or who can kill a do?
Or who can kill a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro?'
And Midge he killd a do,
And Little John killd a hart of greece,
Five hundred foot him fro.
'That hath [shot] such a shot for me;
I would ride my horse an hundred miles,
To finde one could match with thee.'
He laughed full heartily:
'There lives a curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Will beat both him and thee.
Well can a strong bow draw;
He will beat you and your yeomen,
Set them all on a row.'
It was by Mary free,
That he would neither eat nor drink
Till the frier he did see.
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him week
It was made of a trusty tree,
With a sheaf of arrows at his belt,
To the Fountains Dale went he.
No further would he ride;
There was he aware of a curtal frier,
Walking by the water-side.
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him weel.
And tied him to a thorn:
'Carry me over the water, thou curtal frier,
Or else thy life 's forlorn.'
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
The frier said to him again,
Carry me over this water, fine fellow,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
Deep water he did bestride,
And spake neither good word nor bad,
Till he came at the other side.
Robin Hood said to him again,
Carry me over this water, thou curtal frier,
Or it shall breed thy pain.
And stept up to the knee;
Till he came at the middle stream,
Neither good nor bad spake he.
There he threw Robin in:
'And chuse thee, chuse thee, fine fellow,
Whether thou wilt sink or swim.'
The frier to a wicker wand;
Bold Robin Hood is gone to shore,
And took his bow in hand.
To the frier he let flye;
The curtal frier, with his steel buckler,
He put that arrow by.
Shoot on as thou hast begun;
If thou shoot here a summers day,
Thy mark I will not shun.'
Till his arrows all were gone;
They took their swords and steel bucklers,
And fought with might and maine;
Till four ith' afternoon;
Then Robin Hood came to his knees,
Of the frier to beg a boon.
I beg it on my knee;
Give me leave to set my horn to my mouth,
And to blow blasts three.'
"Of thy blasts I have no doubt;
I hope thou 'lt blow so passing well
Till both thy eyes fall out.'
He blew but blasts three;
Half a hundred yeomen, with bows bent,
Came raking over the lee.
'That come so hastily?'
'These men are mine,' said Robin Hood;
'Frier, what is that to thee?'
'The like I gave to thee;
Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth,
And to whute whutes three.'
'Or else I were to blame;
Three whutes in a friers fist
Would make me glad and fain.'
And whuted whutes three;
Half a hundred good ban-dogs
Came running the frier unto.
And I my self for thee:'
'Nay, by my faith,' quoth Robin Hood,
'Frier, that may not be.'
The one behind, the other before;
Robin Hoods mantle of Lincoln green
Off from his back they tore.
Or they shot north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were,
They kept their arrows in their mouth.
'Frier, at my bidding be;'
'Whose man art thou,' said the curtal frier,
'Comes here to prate with me?'
Frier, I will not lie;
If thou take not up thy dogs soon,
I'le take up them and thee.'
He shot with might and main;
Soon half a score of the friers dogs
Lay dead upon the plain.
'Thy master and I will agree;
And we will have new orders taken,
With all the haste that may be.'
And Fountains Abby free,
Every Sunday throughout the year,
A noble shall be thy fee.
Changed shall thy garment be,
If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham,
And there remain with me.'
Seven long years or more;
There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.
- ↑ b would have taken precedence of a, having been printed earlier (1607-41), but I am at liberty only to collate Pepys copies. The Wood copies of Robin Hood ballads are generally preferable to the Pepys.
- ↑ "A wet weary man," A 71, should probably be "wel weary." Why should R. H. be wet? And if wet, he may as well be a little wetter.
- ↑ Like terms are assured the cook by John iu the Gest, sts 170, 171, and offered the Tauner by Robin Hood, R. H. and the Tanner, st. 26. Cf. Adam Bell, sts 163–65.
The 'Life' in the Sloane MS., which is put not much before 1600, says: He procurd the Pynner of Wakefeyld to become one of his company, and a freyr called Muchel; though some say he was an other kynd of religious man, for that the order of freyrs was not yet sprung up. - ↑ Curtilarius (Old English curtiler) qui curtile curat aut incolit: Ducange.
- ↑ I suppose that it must already have been pointed out that the story of King Ramiro, versified by Southey from the Portuguese, Poetical Works, 1838, VI, 122, is a variety of that of Solomon. There are curious points of resemblance between 'R. H. rescuing Three Squires' and the conclusion of the story of Solomon.