Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford
Ballad | |
---|---|
Child | 144 |
Title | Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford |
Versions | 2 |
Variants | 5 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Date | c. 1730 |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-07-09. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-05-24.
Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford is an 18th century broadside ballad known in two versions, one in 16 stanzas, the other, more condensed, in just 11 stanzas. As Child notes,[1] the Bishop of Hereford is also a character in the ballad of Robin Hood and Queen Katherine (Child 145), where he remembers how Robin Hood made him sing mass and extracted an enforced loan from him. The earliest broadside prints of this ballad are from c. 1750, while the MS containing the B version has been dated to c. 1730, a dating Child feels is uncertain. According to Chappell it was the most popular Robin Hood ballad in the mid-19th century.[2]
Plot
Editions
Version A
Variant a
Anonymous, ed. Robin Hood's Garland. London: J. Marshall & Co., Aldermary Churchyard, [s.d.], No. 23.
Variant b
- Anonymous. Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford. London: Publish'd Apl. 7th, 1791, by C. Sheppard, No. 19, Lambert Hill, Doctors Commons.
- Bodleian Library, Douce Ballads 3(123b). Bodleian Library Catalogue of Ballads (copy used by Child.)
- Bodleian Library, Douce FF 71(11). Bodleian Library Catalogue of Ballads
Variant c
- Anonymous. The Bishop of Hereford's entertainment by Robin Hood and Little John, &c., in merry Barnsdale ([London]: printed for Daniel Wright, next the Sun Tavern in Holborn, [17??]). Not seen by Child.
- Chappell, W., ed. Popular Music of the Olden Time; A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Also a Short Account of the Minstrels (London, [1855-59]), vol. II, pp. 395-96. Child used this edition, which is based on the preceding.
Variant d
Anonymous, ed. Robin Hood's Garland. [s.l.]: [s.n.], 1749, p. 98 (No. 23).
Version B
Variant a
- Cochrane, Elizabeth, compil. Elizabeth Cochrane's Songbook ([?1730]), p. 149 (No. 113).
Popular collections
- Anonymous, ed. Robin Hood's Garland. London: J. Marshall & Co., Aldermary Churchyard, [s.d.], No. 23. Text A:a.
- Anonymous, ed. Robin Hood's Garland. [s.l.]: [s.n.], 1749, No. 23. Text A:d.
Scholarly and literary collections
- Chappell, W., ed. Popular Music of the Olden Time; A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Also a Short Account of the Minstrels (London, [1855-59]), vol. II, pp. 395-96. Child's text A:a.
- 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. 193-96.
- [Evans, Thomas], ed. Old Ballads, Historical and Narrative (London, 1777), vol. I, pp. 211-14. Title: The bishop of Hereford's entertainment by Robin Hood and Little John, &c. in merry Barnsdale. (A:a type.)
- Evans, Thomas, ed. Old Ballads, Historical and Narrative, with Some of Modern Date (London, 1784), vol. I, pp. 211-14. Title: The bishop of Hereford's entertainment by Robin Hood and Little John, &c. in merry Barnsdale. (A:a type.)
- [Ritson, Joseph, ed.] Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, now Extant, Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw, to Which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life (London, 1795), vol. II, pp. 146-150. (A:a type.)
Translations
French
Loève-Veimars, Adolphe, transl. Ballades, lëgendes et chants populaires de l'Angleterre et de l'Écosse, par Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, Campbell et les anciens poètes (Paris, 1825), pp. 204-207: 'Robin Hood et L'Evèque d'Hereford'. A French prose rendering.
German
- Grün, Anastasius, transl. Robin Hood. Ein Balladenkranz nach Altenglischen Volksliedern (Stuttgart, 1864), pp. 151-54: "Robin Hood und der Bischof von Hereford"; notes, p. 218.
- Grün, Anastasius, transl.; Frankl, Ludwig August, ed. Anastasius Grüns Gesammelte Werke (Berlin, 1877), pp. 293-296: "Robin Hood und der Bischof von Hereford".
- Talvj. Versuch einer Geschichtlichen Charakteristik der Volkslieder germanischer Nationen (Leipzig, 1840), pp. 493-95: "Robin Hood under der Bischof von Hereford".
Allusions
1828 - Clarke, Stephen Reynolds - New Yorkshire Gazetteer
Robin Hood's Well [...] a hamlet, partly in the township of Burgh Wallis, parish of Owton [sic], and partly in the township of Skelbrook, parish of Kirkby South, wapentake of Osgoldcross, 7 miles N. W. from Doncaster. This village is situated in what was once Barnsdale Forest, now enclosed, and one of the haunts of the renowned free-booter. The well is a square building, nine feet high, which adjoins the high road; near this place Robin Hood is said to have robbed the Bishop of Hereford, and afterwards compelled him to dance round a tree in his boots.[3]
Discussion
Notes
- ↑ 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, p. 194.
- ↑ Chappell, W., ed. Popular Music of the Olden Time; A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Also a Short Account of the Minstrels (London, [1855-59]), vol. II, p. 395.
- ↑ Clarke, Stephen Reynolds. The New Yorkshire Gazetteer, or Topographical Dictionary (London, 1828), p. 208.