RITSON, Joseph. Robin Hood: A Collection of all the ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English Outlaw. 2 vols. London, 1795. GUTCH, John Matthew. A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode, with other Ancient and Modern Ballads and Songs relating to this celebrated yeoman. 2 vols. London, 1847. HUNTER, Rev. Joseph. The Ballad-Hero Robin Hood. London, 1852. (No. 4 of _Critical and Historical Tracts_.) FRICKE, Richard. Die Robin-Hood-Balladen. In Herrig’s _Archiv_, lxix. 241-344. Also separately, Braunschweig, 1883. BRANDL, Alois. Englische Volkspoesie. In Paul’s _Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie_. Strassburg, 1893. KIESSMAN, R. Untersuchungen über die Motivs der Robin-Hood-Balladen. Halle, 1895. CHAMBERS, E. K. The Mediæval Stage. 2 vols. Oxford, 1903. (Vol. i, chap. viii.) HEUSLER, A. Lied und Epos. Dortmund, 1905. HART, W. M. Ballad and Epic. In _Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature_. Vol. xi. Boston, 1907. CLAWSON, W. H. The Gest of Robin Hood. In _University of Toronto Studies_. Toronto, 1909. ARTICLES The London and Westminster Review. March 1840. Vol. xxxiii. The Academy (correspondence). 1883. Vol. xxiv. The Quarterly Review. July 1898. A GEST OF ROBYN HODE ‘Rebus huius Roberti gestis tota Britannia in cantibus utitur.’ --MAJOR. +The Text.+--There are seven texts of the _Gest_, to be distinguished as follows:-- (i.) begins ‘Here begynneth a gest of Robyn Hode’; an undated printed fragment preserved with other early pieces in a volume in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. It was reprinted in 1827 by David Laing, who then supposed it to be from the press of Chepman and Myllar, Edinburgh printers of the early sixteenth century; but he afterwards had reason to doubt this opinion. It is now attributed to Jan van Doesborch, a printer from Antwerp. The extent of this fragment is indicated below. Internal evidence (collected by Child, iii. 40) shows it to be an older text than (ii.) ‘Here begynneth a lytell geste of Robyn hode’--so runs the title-page; at the head of the poem are added the words--‘and his meyne [= meinie, company], And of the proude Sheryfe of Notyngham.’ The colophon runs ‘Explycit. kynge Edwarde and Robyn hode and Lytell Johan Enprented at London in fletestrete at the sygne of the sone By Wynken de Worde.’ This also is undated, and Child says it ‘may be anywhere from 1492 to 1534.’ Recent bibliographical research shows that Wynkyn de Worde moved to Fleet Street at the end of the year 1500, which gives the downward limit; and as the printer died in 1584, the _Lytell Geste_ must be placed between those dates.[1] The text is complete save for two lines (7.1 and 339.1), which have also dropped from the other early texts. The only known copy is in the Cambridge University Library.