1661 - Wood, Anthony - Note on Robin Hood ballads

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
Allusion
Date c. 1661–67
Author Wood, Anthony?
Title List of Robin Hood broadside ballads in Anthony Wood's collection
Mentions Robin Hood and Maid Marian; Robin Hood and the Bishop; Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham; Robin Hood Newly Revived; The Noble Fisherman or Robin Hood's Preferment; Robin Hood and the Beggar; Robin Hood and the Butcher; Robin Hood's chase; Robin Hood and the Shepherd; Renowned Robin Hood (broadside ballads)
Anthony Wood, 1695, by M. Burg / John McCafferty (Twitter).)

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-02-16. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.

Allusion

[Note on the back of a slip pasted on f. 319a of Anthony Wood's MS 'Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford' (1661-66):] Robin Hood and Maid Marian; R. H. and the bishop; R. H.'s progress to Notingham; R. H. newly revived; The noble fisherman or R. H.'s preferment; R. H. and the beggar; R. H. and the butcher; R. H.'s chase; R. H. and the shepherd; Renowned R. H.[1]

Source notes

The note is undated. I have dated it c. 1661–c. 1667 because 1) Wood's Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford was written 1661-66 and 2) another note pasted on to the same folio of the MS is dated: June 11 [16]67. The attribution of this note to wood is uncertain. The editor is "not certain that any part of this slip is in Wood's handwriting".[2]

IRHB comments

All the ballads on the list are found in Wood's collection. Was the note a list of recent acquisitions or the Robin Hood ballads he had at the time? "R. H. and the beggar" is Robin Hood and the Beggar 1; no 17th century copy of Robin Hood and the Beggar 2 is known.[3] "Renowned Robin Hood" is an alternative title for Robin Hood and Queen Katherine.[4] Child does not mention this list. It is of some interest in that it tells us, if my dating is accepted, that the ballads included in the list were in print by the 1660's.

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