Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood

Ballad
Child	132
Title	The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
Versions	1
Variants	More than 10
Stanzas	15
Date	1775
A.k.a.	The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood; Robin Hood and the Pedlar; Robing Wood and Little John

The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [and] The Trysting Tree ([Such broadside No.] 390) (London, [inter 1863 and 1885]); Lucy Broadwood Manuscript Collection (LEB/9/336/1) / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood ([London]; Cambridge; Brighton, [inter 1828-32]); Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection (FK/15/209/1) / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-09-03. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-06-01.

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.

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 he 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.

Date

According to J.H. Dixon, who first recorded this ballad from 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; Dixon does not provide any. 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. Its absence from the Robin Hood garlands is most probably 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. The earliest known version is that in Captain Delany's Garland, a broadsheet printed in 1775.

Broadsides and traditional variants

Child does not include or refer to any other texts than those of Dixon and Captain Delany's Garland (1775). He was unaware of or not interested in the 19th century broadside prints. After his collection appeared, the song has often been recorded by folk song collectors in the UK and elsewhere in the English-speaking world. For particulars see below. Child did not employ sigils for the variants from which he printed the ballad. They are designated [a] and [b] below. Variants not known to or used by Child are listed under collectors' names, with a hyphen and number added in cases where two or more were collected by the same collector.

Essential editions

• 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. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'

Primary sources

Variant: a

• 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. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'
• Dixon, James Henry, 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 (Percy Society) (London. 1846), pp. 71-74. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'Later editions ...
  • [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. 71-74. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'

Popular editions

• Anonymous. The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood ([London]; Cambridge; Brighton, [inter 1828-32]). Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'
• Anonymous. The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [and] The Trysting Tree ([Such broadside No.] 390) (London, [inter 1863 and 1885]). Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'
• [Williams, Ralph Vaughan], transcr. Robing Wood and Little John. MS MS RVW2/2/79. [1904-04-25]. Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection (BL, Add. MS 54190, f. 80v). Title: 'Robing Wood and Little John'. Recorded 1904-04-25. Performed by John Denny; Billericay, Essex, England. First line: 'It is of a pedlar, pedlar bold'. Collector; Ralph Vaughan Williams

Scholarly editions

• Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads (London and Cambridge, 1864), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'Later editions ...
  • Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads (Cambridge, 1865), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'
  • Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads (Golden Treasury Series) (London, 1872), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'
  • Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest Old Ballads (New York, 1886), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'
  • Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads (Golden Treasury Series) (London and New York, 1887), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'
  • Allingham, William, ed. The Ballad Book: A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads (Golden Treasury Series) (London; New York, 1898), pp. 81-84; notes p. 380. Title: 'The Birth of Robin Hood'
• Broadwood, Lucy E. ed. English Traditional Songs and Carols, Collected and Edited, with Annotations and Pianoforte Accompaniments (London and New York, ©1906), pp. 4-5, Appendix, p. 223. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'Later editions ...
  • Broadwood, Lucy E. ed. English Traditional Songs and Carols, Collected and Edited, with Annotations. With Words and Voice Part (in Old Notation and Tonic Sol-fa) (London and New York, / by Lucy E. Broadwood. London), pp. 4-5, Appendix, p. 223. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'
• Dixon, James Henry, 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 (Percy Society) (London. 1846), pp. 71-74. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'Later editions ...
  • [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. 71-74. Title: 'The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood'
• Williams, R. Vaughan, coll. & transcr.; Broadwood, Lucy Etheldred, annot.; S., C.T., annot.; Kidson, Frank, annot.; Sharp, Cecil James, annot.; Maitland, John Alexander Fuller, annot. 'Song Collected from Essex', Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. II (1905-1906), pp. 143-60, pp. 143-60, see p. 156. Title: 'Second version'. Recorded 1906-03-17. by Mr. Verrall of Horsham, Sussex, England. Collector; Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Williams, R. Vaughan, coll. & transcr.; Broadwood, Lucy Etheldred, annot.; S., C.T., annot.; Kidson, Frank, annot.; Sharp, Cecil James, annot.; Maitland, John Alexander Fuller, annot. 'Song Collected from Essex', Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. II (1905-1906), pp. 143-60, pp. 143-60, see pp. 155-56. Title: 'Robing Wood and Little John'. Recorded 1904-04-25. Performed by John Denny; Billericay, Essex, England. First line: 'It is of a pedlar, pedlar bold'. Collector; Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Williams, Ralph Vaughan, ed.; Lloyd, A. L., ed. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (Harmondsworth, Middlesex; Baltimore, MD; Ringwood, Victoria, 1959), pp. 88-89, 121-22. Title: 'Robin Hood and the Pedlar'Later editions ...
  • Williams, Ralph Vaughan, ed.; Lloyd, A. L., ed. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Reprinted (Harmondsworth, Middlesex; Baltimore, MD; Ringwood, Victoria, 1961), pp. 88-89, 121-22. Title: 'Robin Hood and the Pedlar'
  • Williams, Ralph Vaughan, ed.; Lloyd, A. L., ed. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Reprinted (Harmondsworth, Middlesex; Baltimore, MD; Ringwood, Victoria, 1968), pp. 88-89, 121-22. Title: 'Robin Hood and the Pedlar'
  • Williams, Ralph Vaughan, ed.; Lloyd, A. L., ed. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Reprinted (Harmondsworth, Middlesex; Baltimore, MD; Ringwood, Victoria, 1969), pp. 88-89, 121-22. Title: 'Robin Hood and the Pedlar'
• Williams, Ralph Vaughan, coll. & transcr.; Palmer, Roy, ed. Folk Songs (London; Melbourne; Toronto 1983), pp. 35-37, p. 188 n. 21. Title: 'Robin Hood and the Pedlar'. Taken down by Vaughan Williams from the singing of a Mr Bell, bricklayer

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

Image gallery

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  Robin Hood and the Pedlar as sung by Job Francis; Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (Clare College, Cambridge), first page (CJS2/9/1509) / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

• 

  Robin Hood and the Pedlar as sung by Job Francis; Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (Clare College, Cambridge), last page (CJS2/9/1510) / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

• 

  Robing Wood and Little John (Robin Hood And The Pedlar) as sung by John Denny; Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection (BL, Add. MS 54190, f. 80v.) (RVW2/2/79) / From Ralph Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

• 

  The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [and] The Trysting Tree ([Such broadside No.] 390) (London, [inter 1863 and 1885]); / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

• 

  The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood ([London]; Cambridge; Brighton, [inter 1828-32]); Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection (FK/15/209/1) / From Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

Ballads