On the back of a ballad in Anthony a Wood’s collection he has written, “There be some that prate Of Robin Hood, and of his bow, Which never shot therein, I trow.” Ray gives it thus: “Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow, And many talk of little John, that never did him know:” which Kelly has varied, but without authority. Camden’s printer has separated the lines, as distinct proverbs (Remains, 1674): “Many speak of Robin Hood that never shot in his bow. “Many a man talks of little John that never did him know.” This proverb likewise occurs in The downfall of Robert earle of Huntington, 1600, and is alluded to in a scarce and curious old tract intitled “The contention betwyxte Church-yeard and Camell, upon David Dycer’s Dreame,” &c. 1560, 4to, b. l. “Your sodain stormes and thundre claps, your boasts and braggs so loude: Hath doone no harme thogh Robin Hood spake with you in a cloud. Go learne againe of litell Jhon, to shute in Robyn Hods bowe, Or Dicars dreame shall be unhit, and all his whens, I trowe.”[72] The Italians appear to have a similar saying: Molti parlan di Orlando Chi non viddero mai suo brando. {lxxxix} 3. “To overshoot Robin Hood.” “And lastly and chiefly, they cry out with open mouth as if they had overshot Robin Hood, that Plato banished them [_i.e._ poets] out of his commonwealth” (Sir P. Sidney’s Defence of Poesie). 4. “Tales of Robin Hood are good [enough] for fools.” This proverb is inserted in Camden’s Remains, printed originally in 1605; but the word in brackets is supplied from Ray. 5. “To sell Robin Hood’s pennyworths.” “It is spoken of things sold under half their value; or if you will, half sold, half given. Robin Hood came lightly by his ware, and lightly parted therewith; so that he could afford the length of his bow for a yard of velvet. Whithersoever he came, he carried a fair along with him; chapmen crowding to buy his stollen commodities. But seeing the receiver is as bad as the thief, and such buyers are as bad as receivers, the cheap pennyworths of plundered goods may in fine prove dear enough to their consciences” (Fuller’s Worthies, p. 315). This saying is alluded to in the old North-country song of Randal a Barnaby: “All men said, it became me well, And Robin Hood’s pennyworths I did sell.” 6. “Come, turn about, Robin Hood.” Implying that to challenge or defy our hero must have been the _ne plus ultra_ of courage. It occurs in “Wit and Drollery,” 1661: “O love, whose power and might, No creature ere withstood, Thou forcest me to write, Come turn about Robin-hood.” 7. “As crook’d as Robin Hood’s bow.” That is, we are to conceive, when bent by himself. The following stanza of a modern Irish song is the only authority for this proverb that has been met with: