Hood and Little John continued in woodes, despoiling & robbing the goods of the rich. The said Robert entertained an hundred tall men & good archers with such spoiles as he got, upon whome four hundred were they neuer so strong, durst not giue the onset. Poore mens goods he spared, aboundantly relieuing them with that which he got from Abbies, and the houses of rich carles." The fate of Little John (so called, as Boethius informs us, per ironiam,) is one of our historical problems. The three united kingdoms have contended for the honor of possessing his remains. While the English maintain that he was buried in Derbyshire, and the Irish that he was hanged at Dublin, we of the "north countree" hold that he came to lay his weary bones among us, at the Kirk of Petty, upon the Moray Firth. Thus, one chronicler relates, that he fled from Ireland" into Scotland, where he died at a town or village called Moravie." And in Bellenden's translation of Hector Boece, we are informed, that "In Murray land is the Kirk of Pette, quhare the banis of lytill Johne remanis in gret admiratioun of pepill. fourtene fut of hycht, with He hes been squair mem bris effeiring thairto. vi zeris afore the cumyng of this werk to lycht, we saw his hanche bane, als meikill as the haill bane of ane man*, for we schot our arme in the mouth thairof. Be quhilk apperis how strang and square pepill grew in our regioun afore they were effeminat with lust and intemperance of mouth." As an apology for the present Edition, it may be mentioned, that the Ballads bearing the title of " Robin Hood's Garland,” are not only scarce, but are coarsely and inaccurately printed, and contain many objectionable pas * Harison, who "turned" this translation "into English,” says, "Hitherto I have translated Hector's description of Scotland out of the Scotish into the English toong, being not a little aided therein by the Latine, from whence sometime the translator swarveth not a little, as I have done also from him, now and then following the Latine, and now and then gathering such sense out of both as most did stand with my purposed brevitie." Better illustrations of their "swarving" can scarcely be given, than, that in Belfenden's translation, the crus humanum is rendered the "haill bane of ane man," while Harison translates it "the whole thigh." The original Latin text of Boethius is, "Seruantur in templo Pette regionis Morauiæ ossa cujusdam per Ironiam Litil Jhon, id est Minoris Joannis dicti quem figura quantitasque ossium quatuordecem pedum longitudine fuisse demonstrant pari cum ea crassitudine. Vidimus enim ipsi ab hinc sex annis os coxendicis ipsius non minus longitudine totius cruris humani crassitudine suræ. Cujus, in concauitate brachium inseruimus, indicio quantarum molium ferax olim regio nostra esse consueuerit, ubi nondum vorandi ingurgitandique tanta gentem nostram libido inuasisset." sages, which the Editor of the London Edition has very properly altered or omitted. In the "Garland" also, the indispensable Ballad of Maid Marian, and The Death and Burial of Robin Hood, one of the best in the whole collection, are omitted. But the London Edition of the Ballads could never have been intended for popular use. The Life-the Notes and Illustrations the unquestionably ancient Legends-and, consequently, the Price of the publication, all combine in excluding that work from a place among the Ballads, for which it is very questionable whether better substitutes have been provided, while "Our ancient English melodies Are banish'd out of doors." Edinburgh, October, 1826. |