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The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
by Howard Pyle
PREFACE
FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give
yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness
in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with
innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you.
Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly
that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good,
sober folks of real history so frisk and caper in gay colors and motley
that you would not know them but for the names tagged to them.
Here is a stout, lusty fellow with a quick temper, yet none so ill
for all that, who goes by the name of Henry II. Here is a fair,
gentle lady before whom all the others bow and call her
Queen Eleanor. Here is a fat rogue of a fellow, dressed up in rich
robes of a clerical kind, that all the good folk call my Lord Bishop
of Hereford. Here is a certain fellow with a sour temper and a grim look--
the worshipful, the Sheriff of Nottingham. And here, above all,
is a great, tall, merry fellow that roams the greenwood and joins
in homely sports, and sits beside the Sheriff at merry feast, which same
beareth the name of the proudest of the Plantagenets--Richard of
the Lion's Heart. Beside these are a whole host of knights,
priests, nobles, burghers, yeomen, pages, ladies, lasses, landlords,
beggars, peddlers, and what not, all living the merriest of merry lives,
and all bound by nothing but a few odd strands of certain old ballads
(snipped and clipped and tied together again in a score of knots)
which draw these jocund fellows here and there, singing as they go.
Here you will find a hundred dull, sober, jogging places, all tricked out with
flowers and what not, till no one would know them in their fanciful dress.
And here is a country bearing a well-known name, wherein no chill mists
press upon our spirits, and no rain falls but what rolls off our backs
like April showers off the backs of sleek drakes; where flowers bloom
forever and birds are always singing; where every fellow hath a merry catch
as he travels the roads, and ale and beer and wine (such as muddle no wits)
flow like water in a brook.
This country is not Fairyland. What is it? 'Tis the land of Fancy, and is
of that pleasant kind that, when you tire of it--whisk!--you clap the leaves
of this book together and 'tis gone, and you are ready for everyday life,
with no harm done.
And now I lift the curtain that hangs between here and
No-man's-land. Will you come with me, sweet Reader? I thank you.
Give me your hand.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I HOW ROBIN HOOD CAME TO BE AN OUTLAW 1
II ROBIN HOOD AND THE TINKER 14
III THE SHOOTING MATCH AT NOTTINGHAM TOWN 27
IV WILL STUTELY RESCUED BY HIS COMPANIONS 38
V ROBIN HOOD TURNS BUTCHER 50
VI LITTLE JOHN GOES TO NOTTINGHAM FAIR 61
VII HOW LITTLE JOHN LIVED AT THE SHERIFF'S 68
VIII LITTLE JOHN AND THE TANNER OF BLYTH 81
IX ROBIN HOOD AND WILL SCARLET 92
X THE ADVENTURE WITH MIDGE, THE MILLER'S SON 102
Xl ROBIN HOOD AND ALLAN A DALE 115
XII ROBIN HOOD SEEKS THE CURTAL FRIAR 129
XIII ROBIN HOOD COMPASSES A MARRIAGE 145
XIV ROBIN HOOD AIDS A SORROWFUL KNIGHT 156
XV HOW SIR RICHARD OF THE LEA PAID HIS DEBTS 172
XVI LITTLE JOHN TURNS BAREFOOT FRIAR 186
XVII ROBIN HOOD TURNS BEGGAR 202
XVIII ROBIN HOOD SHOOTS BEFORE QUEEN ELEANOR 222
XIX THE CHASE OF ROBIN HOOD 243
XX ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBOURNE 262
XXI KING RICHARD COMES TO SHERWOOD FOREST 281
EPILOGUE 300
0. HOW ROBIN HOOD CAME TO BE AN OUTLAW
1. ROBIN HOOD AND THE TINKER
2. THE SHOOTING MATCH AT NOTTINGHAM TOWN
3. WILL STUTELY RESCUED BY HIS COMPANIONS
4. ROBIN HOOD TURNS BUTCHER
5. LITTLE JOHN GOES TO NOTTINGHAM FAIR
6. HOW LITTLE JOHN LIVED AT THE SHERIFF'S
7. LITTLE JOHN AND THE TANNER OF BLYTH
8. ROBIN HOOD AND WILL SCARLET
9. THE ADVENTURE WITH MIDGE, THE MILLER'S SON
10. ROBIN HOOD AND ALLAN A DALE
11. ROBIN HOOD SEEKS THE CURTAL FRIAR
12. ROBIN HOOD COMPASSES A MARRIAGE
13. ROBIN HOOD AIDS A SORROWFUL KNIGHT
14. HOW SIR RICHARD OF THE LEA PAID HIS DEBTS
15. LITTLE JOHN TURNS BAREFOOT FRIAR
16. ROBIN HOOD TURNS BEGGAR
17. ROBIN HOOD SHOOTS BEFORE QUEEN ELEANOR
18. THE CHASE OF ROBIN HOOD
19. ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBOURNE
20. KING RICHARD COMES TO SHERWOOD FOREST
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