3162. Between this line and the next, MS. Trin. Col. 2, inserts _Bargoynes and beverechis | Begonne for to arise._ 3277, 3278. _rymes of Robyn Hood | and Randolf erl of Chestre._ This seems to be the earliest mention of the ballads of Robin Hood which can now be found. Ritson was quite mistaken (Robin Hood, Introd. p. xlix) in the supposed mention of him by the prior of Alnwick, the title of the Latin song being modern. The passage of Fordun, in which Robin Hood is spoken of, is probably an interpolation. I am not sure that Ritson is right in taking the _Randolf erl of Chester_ of Piers Ploughman, to be Ranulf de Blundevile: it is quite as probable that he was the Ranulf of Chester of the days of Stephen, whose turbulent deeds may have been the subject of popular ballads. Warton (H. E. P. ii, 373), quoting the passage of Piers Ploughman with the word _erl_ omitted, conceives it to mean Ralph Higden, and imagines the _rymes_ to be the Chester Mysteries, of which he conjectured that Ralph Higden was the author. 3311. _Ite missa est._ The concluding sentence of the service of the Mass. 3408. _the Rode of Chestre._ There was a celebrated cross or rood at Chester, which was long an object of great veneration, and even of pilgrimage, among our Roman Catholic forefathers. "I do not recollect any thing remarkable (says Mr. Pennant, speaking of Chester) on the outside of the walls which has been unnoticed, unless it be the Rood-eye, and the adjacent places."--"The name of this spot is taken from _eye_, its watery situation, and rood, the cross which stood there, whose base is still to be seen." Pennant's Tour in Wales, edit. 1778, p. 191. According to Gough's Camden, the base was still remaining in 1789. 3410. _Roberd the robbere._ This name is rather curious in conjunction with the term _Roberdesmen_ mentioned in the note on l. 88. It was no uncommon practice to give punning names in this way to people or classes of people. In a Latin song of the reign of Henry III (Political Songs, p. 49), we have a very curious instance of it, one of the names being, as here, _Robert_:-- Competentur per _Robert_, _robbur_ designatur; Robertus excoriat, extorquet, et minatur.-- Vir quicunque rabidus consors est Roberto. Still earlier (12th cent.) a scribe says of one of his brothers, "Secundus dicebatur _Robertus_, quia a re nomen habuit, _spoliator_ enim diu fuit et _prædo_." (Polit. Songs, p. 354.) 3419. _Dysmas._ In middle-age legends, Dismas and Gestas were the names of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ. The former was the one who believed in the Saviour, and received a promise of paradise. 3443. Before this line, Whitaker's text has the following passage:--