Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood

Ballad
Child	132
Title	The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
Versions	1
Variants	More than 5
Stanzas	15
Date	c. 1775

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-09-03. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-06-19.

The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood belongs to the large group of mostly late ballads in which the outlaw and/or members of his band accost a stalwart stranger, who usually represents some trade, and engage in a fight with him. In this case the stranger turns out to be a cousin of Robin Hood's named Gamble Gold. As Child notes, this ballad is essentially a traditional version of Robin Hood Newly Revived and therefore, like it, preserves a distant echo of the tale of Gamelyn.

According to J.H. Dixon, who first recorded this ballad from oral recitation before 1846, "[t]his ballad is of considerable antiquity, and no doubt much older than some of those inserted in the common garlands". I can see no reason why this should be the case. The elderly lady from whose recitation the ballad was taken down told Dixon she had often heard her grandmother sing it, but this would take us no further back than the second half of the 18th century, and nothing in the ballad itself seems particularly archaic to me. I am inclined to believe that its absence from the garlands is due to its having come into being after their contents had become more or less fixed. Roy Palmer is almost certainly correct in suggesting an 18th century date of origin.

Plot

A pedlar with a pack on his back is accosted by Robin Hood and Little John. The latter asks him what he is carrying. The pedlar says his pack is full of suits of green silk and silken bow-strings. Little John wants half of it. The pedlar says he can have it all if he can make him yield an inch. Little John pulls out his sword, and the two fight. Taunting them, Robin says he could find a smaller man who could thrash them both. Little John in response challenges Robin to try his luck with the pedlar. This he does until the blood flows in streams. Robin wants to know the stranger's name, but he will know the outlaws' names first. After the attackers have introduced themselves, the pedlar tells them is Gamble Gold who had left England for killing a man. 'Then you are my cousin', says Robin. They sheath their swords and go to a tavern to eat and drink.

Variants

Child knew only the variant printed by Dixon, but

Editions

Primary editions

Child 132

• Dixon, James Henry, transcr. [MS of the ballad Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar (C132) as recited by an aged female in Bermondsey, Surrey. Present whereabouts unknown] ([No later than 1846]), pp. 71-74
  • [Dixon, James Henry, ed.]; Bell, Robert, ed. Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, taken down from Oral Recitation, and transcribed from Private Manuscripts, Rare Broadsides, and Scarce Publications (London, 1857), pp. 59-61.

RVW 21

• Williams, Ralph Vaughan, coll. & transcr.; Palmer, Roy, ed. Folk Songs (London; Melbourne; Toronto 1983), pp. 35-37.

Scholarly editions

Also see under Primary editions above.

• Child, Francis James, ed.; [Kittredge, G. L.], ed.; [Ireland, Catharine Innes], bibl. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, ©1882-98), vol. III, pp. 154-55. Additions and corrections: vol. V, p. 240.

Sources and analogues

Stanzas	Matter	Title	Analogue
1-15	Similarity of plot etc.	Robin Hood Newly Revived	Child notes that Pedlar is a traditional variant of Newly Revived.
11-15	Similarity in dialogue	Robin Hood's Delight	Child notes similarity of Pedlar sts. 11-12, 15 to Delight sts. 19-20, 24.
13-14	Similarity in dialogue	Robin Hood Newly Revived	Child notes similarity of. Pedlar sts. 13-14 Newly Revived sts. 17-18.

Also see

• Robin Hood Newly Revived.

Notes

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