Fordun, the Scotish historian, who wrote about 1340, speaking of Robin Hood and Little John, and their accomplices, says, “of whom the foolish vulgar in comedies and tragedies make lewd entertainment, and are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing them above all other ballads;”[57] and Mair (or Major), whose history was published by himself in 1521, observes that “The exploits of this Robert are celebrated in songs throughout all Britain.”[58] So, likewise, Maister Johne Bellendene, the translator of “that noble clerk Maister Hector Boece” (Bois or Boethius), having mentioned “that waithman Robert Hode with his fallow litil Johne,” adds, “of quhom ar mony fabillis and mery sportis soung amang the vulgar pepyll.”[59] Whatever may have been the nature of the compositions alluded to by the above writers, several of the pieces printed in the present collection are {lxxiv} unquestionably of great antiquity; not less, that is, than between three and four hundred years old. The Lytell Geste, which is first inserted, is probably the oldest thing upon the subject we now possess;[60] but a legend, apparently of the same species, was once extant, of, perhaps, a still earlier date, of which it is some little satisfaction to be able to give even the following fragment, from a single leaf, fortunately preserved in one of the volumes of old printed ballads in the British Museum, in a handwriting as old as Henry the Sixth’s time. It exhibits the characters of our hero and his _fidus Achates_ in the noblest point of view. “He say_d_ Robyn Hod . . . . yne the preson, And owght off hit was g_on_. The porter rose a-non certeyn, As sone as he hard Johan call; Lytyll Johan was redy with a sword, And bare hym throw to the wall. Now will I be jayler, sayd lytyll Johan, And toke the keys in hond; He toke the way to Robyn Hod, And sone he hyme unbond. He gaffe hym a good swerd in his hond, His hed ther-with for to kepe; And ther as the wallis wer lowest, Anon down ther they lepe. * * * * * To Robyn . . . . . sayd: I have d_one_ the a god torne for an . . . Quit me when thow may; I have done the a gode torne, sayd lytyll [Johan], Forsothe as I the saye; {lxxv} I have browghte the under the gren wod . . . Farewell & have gode daye. Nay, be my trowthe, sayd Robyn, So schall it never bee; I make the master, sayd Robyn, Off all my men & me. Nay, be my trowthe, sayd lytyll Johan, So schall it never bee.” This, indeed, may be part of the “story of Robin Hood and Little John,” which M. Wilhelm Bedwell found in the ancient MS. lent him by his much honoured good friend M. G. Withers, whence he extracted and published “The Turnament of Tottenham,” a poem of the same age, and which seemed to him to be done (perhaps but transcribed) by Sir Gilbert Pilkington, formerly, as some had thought, parson of that parish.[61]