143-593: Beggars' Bush is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics. The authorship and the date of the play have long been debated by commentators. Critics generally agree that the hands of Fletcher and Philip Massinger are manifest in the text, but they dispute the presence of Francis Beaumont . Cyrus Hoy , in his wide-ranging survey of authorship problems in Fletcher's canon, judged all three dramatists to have contributed to
286-667: A 17th-century manuscript in the Lambarde MS. collection (Folger Shakespeare Library, MS. 1487.2), in the hand of Edward Knight , the "book-keeper" or prompter of the King's Men. After the closure of the London theatres in 1642 , at the start of the English Civil War , a droll known as The Lame Commonwealth was formed from material extracted from Beggars' Bush . The droll features additional dialogue strongly suggesting it
429-617: A character in later works, such as the memoirs of Bampfylde Moore Carew , the self-proclaimed King of the Beggars.) English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world . The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in
572-523: A gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start for all forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attached to the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year-old Charles II . The nobility who travelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent's literary scene. John Milton , one of
715-584: A gode felawe. And in its final lines the Gest sums up: he was a good outlawe, And dyde pore men moch god. Within Robin Hood's band, medieval forms of courtesy rather than modern ideals of equality are generally in evidence. In the early ballad, Robin's men usually kneel before him in strict obedience: in A Gest of Robyn Hode the king even observes that " His men are more at his byddynge/Then my men be at myn. " Their social status, as yeomen,
858-537: A lost Robin Hood play for Henry VIII's court, and that this play may have been one of Munday's sources. Henry VIII himself with eleven of his nobles had impersonated "Robyn Hodes men" as part of his "Maying" in 1510. Robin Hood is known to have appeared in a number of other lost and extant Elizabethan plays . In 1599, the play George a Green, the Pinner of Wakefield places Robin Hood in the reign of Edward IV . Edward I ,
1001-526: A metaphor for the challenge faced by the committed Christian [...]". Classical antiquity was not forgotten in Anglo-Saxon England, and several Old English poems are adaptations of late classical philosophical texts. The longest is King Alfred 's (849–899) 9th-century translation of Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy . After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of
1144-487: A number of unreliable sources, such as the Robin Hood plays of Anthony Munday and the Sloane Manuscript. Nevertheless, Dobson and Taylor credit Ritson with having 'an incalculable effect in promoting the still continuing quest for the man behind the myth', and note that his work remains an 'indispensable handbook to the outlaw legend even now'. Ritson's friend Walter Scott used Ritson's anthology collection as
1287-608: A personal friend of Chaucer, Gower is remembered primarily for three major works: the Mirroir de l'Omme , Vox Clamantis , and Confessio Amantis , three long poems written in Anglo-Norman , Latin and Middle English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes. Significant religious works were also created in the 14th century, including those of Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 – c. 1416) and Richard Rolle . Julian's Revelations of Divine Love (about 1393)
1430-464: A play by George Peele first performed in 1590–91, incorporates a Robin Hood game played by the characters. Llywelyn the Great , the last independent Prince of Wales , is presented playing Robin Hood. Fixing the Robin Hood story to the 1190s had been first proposed by John Major in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), (and he also may have been influenced in so doing by the story of Warin); this
1573-519: A secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. Led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century by people like Isaac Newton and the writings of Descartes , John Locke and Francis Bacon . They sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered
SECTION 10
#17327838473871716-494: A shift towards a more secular base for European theatre. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Somonyng of Everyman ( The Summoning of Everyman ) (c. 1509–1519), usually referred to simply as Everyman ,
1859-611: A source for his picture of Robin Hood in Ivanhoe , written in 1818, which did much to shape the modern legend . In the decades following the publication of Ritson's book, other ballad collections would occasionally publish stray Robin Hood ballads Ritson had missed. In 1806, Robert Jamieson published the earliest known Robin Hood ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk in Volume II of his Popular Ballads and Songs From Tradition . In 1846,
2002-600: A variety of genres, including histories (such as Richard III and Henry IV ), tragedies (such as Hamlet , Othello , and Macbeth ) comedies (such as Midsummer Night's Dream , As You Like It , and Twelfth Night ) and the late romances , or tragicomedies. Shakespeare's career continues in the Jacobean period. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe , and Ben Jonson , Thomas Dekker , John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont . In
2145-526: A variety of sources, including apparently "A Gest of Robin Hood", and were influential in fixing the story of Robin Hood to the period of Richard I . Stephen Thomas Knight has suggested that Munday drew heavily on Fulk Fitz Warin , a historical 12th century outlawed nobleman and enemy of King John , in creating his Robin Hood. The play identifies Robin Hood as Robert, Earl of Huntingdon , following in Richard Grafton's association of Robin Hood with
2288-602: Is Robin Hood and Little John telling the famous story of the quarter-staff fight between the two outlaws. Dobson and Taylor wrote, 'More generally the Robin of the broadsides is a much less tragic, less heroic and in the last resort less mature figure than his medieval predecessor'. In most of the broadside ballads Robin Hood remains a plebeian figure, a notable exception being Martin Parker 's attempt at an overall life of Robin Hood, A True Tale of Robin Hood , which also emphasises
2431-560: Is a late 15th-century English morality play. Like John Bunyan 's allegory Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation through the use of allegorical characters. The English Renaissance as a part of the Northern Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th to the 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that
2574-678: Is a literary version) and presided over the French May festivities; "This Robin and Marion tended to preside, in the intervals of the attempted seduction of the latter by a series of knights, over a variety of rustic pastimes." In the Jeu de Robin and Marion , Robin and his companions have to rescue Marion from the clutches of a "lustful knight". This play is distinct from the English legends, although Dobson and Taylor regard it as 'highly probable' that this French Robin's name and functions travelled to
2717-403: Is also mentioned in a famous Lollard tract dated to the first half of the fifteenth century (thus also possibly predating his other earliest historical mentions) alongside several other folk heroes such as Guy of Warwick , Bevis of Hampton , and Sir Lybeaus . However, the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the second half of the 15th century, or
2860-541: Is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language . The poem, The Dream of the Rood , was inscribed upon the Ruthwell Cross . Two Old English poems from the late 10th century are The Wanderer and The Seafarer . Both have a religious theme, and Marsden describes The Seafarer as "an exhortatory and didactic poem, in which the miseries of winter seafaring are used as
3003-410: Is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press . The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously, as there were great dangers in being associated with a satire. John Dryden (1631–1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated
SECTION 20
#17327838473873146-402: Is believed to be the first published book written by a woman in the English language. A major work from the 15th century is Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory , which was printed by Caxton in 1485. This is a compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances, and was among the earliest books printed in England. It was popular and influential in the later revival of interest in
3289-594: Is generally regarded as in substance a genuine late medieval ballad. In 1795, Joseph Ritson published an enormously influential edition of the Robin Hood ballads Robin Hood: A collection of all the Ancient Poems Songs and Ballads now extant, relative to that celebrated Outlaw . 'By providing English poets and novelists with a convenient source book, Ritson gave them the opportunity to recreate Robin Hood in their own imagination,' Ritson's collection included
3432-452: Is more than a mere simpleton: on the contrary, he often acts with great shrewdness. The tinker, setting out to capture Robin, only manages to fight with him after he has been cheated out of his money and the arrest warrant he is carrying. In Robin Hood's Golden Prize , Robin disguises himself as a friar and cheats two priests out of their cash. Even when Robin is defeated, he usually tricks his foe into letting him sound his horn, summoning
3575-460: Is no broadside version of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne or of Robin Hood and the Monk , which did not appear in print until the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. However, the Gest was reprinted from time to time throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. No surviving broadside ballad can be dated with certainty before the 17th century, but during that century, the commercial broadside ballad became
3718-686: Is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy. The first explicit statement to the effect that Robin Hood habitually robbed from the rich to give the poor can be found in John Stow 's Annales of England (1592), about a century after the publication of the Gest. But from the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; the Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob: loke ye do no husbonde harme That tilleth with his ploughe. No more ye shall no gode yeman That walketh by gren-wode shawe; Ne no knyght ne no squyer That wol be
3861-623: Is not that children did not read Robin Hood stories before, but this is the first appearance of a Robin Hood literature specifically aimed at them. A very influential example of these children's novels was Pierce Egan the Younger 's Robin Hood and Little John (1840). This was adapted into French by Alexandre Dumas in Le Prince des Voleurs (1872) and Robin Hood Le Proscrit (1873). Egan made Robin Hood of noble birth but raised by
4004-431: Is one of the better-known Arthurian stories of an established type known as the "beheading game". Developing from Welsh, Irish and English tradition, Sir Gawain highlights the importance of honour and chivalry. Preserved in the same manuscript with Sir Gawayne were three other poems, now generally accepted as the work of the same author, including an intricate elegiac poem, Pearl . The English dialect of these poems from
4147-521: Is remembered chiefly for his famous translation in 1616 of Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. This was the first ever complete translations of either poem into the English language. The translation had a profound influence on English literature and inspired John Keats 's famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816). Shakespeare popularized the English sonnet , which made significant changes to Petrarch 's model. A collection of 154 by sonnets , dealing with themes such as
4290-418: Is shown by their weapons: they use swords rather than quarterstaffs . The only character to use a quarterstaff in the early ballads is the potter, and Robin Hood does not take to a staff until the 17th-century Robin Hood and Little John . The political and social assumptions underlying the early Robin Hood ballads have long been controversial. J. C. Holt influentially argued that the Robin Hood legend
4433-609: Is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff . In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class. He is traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green . Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover, Maid Marian ; his band of outlaws,
Beggars' Bush - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-472: Is still commonly presented in modern times. As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by 'Robin Hood games' or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter , but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in
4719-706: Is the York cycle of 48 pageants. They were performed in the city of York , from the middle of the 14th century until 1569. Besides the Middle English drama, there are three surviving plays in Cornish known as the Ordinalia . Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, the morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment, which represented
4862-430: Is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical; in particular, stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved. The story of Robin's aid to the 'poor knight' that takes up much of
5005-539: Is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. Like most of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later – Renaissance style and ideas were slow in penetrating England. Many scholars see the beginnings of the English Renaissance during the reign of Henry VIII and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as
5148-459: The Angevin era developed in later centuries. The earliest known ballads featuring him are from the 15th century. There have been numerous variations and adaptations of the story over the subsequent years, and the story continues to be widely represented in literature, film, and television media today. Robin Hood is considered one of the best-known tales of English folklore . In popular culture,
5291-507: The Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. As the invaders integrated, their language and literature mingled with that of the natives, and the Norman dialects of the ruling classes became Anglo-Norman . From then until the 12th century, Anglo-Saxon underwent a gradual transition into Middle English . Political power
5434-513: The Gest may be an example. The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad, Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page " in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison. No extant early ballad actually shows Robin Hood "giving to
5577-629: The Merry Men ; and his chief opponent, the Sheriff of Nottingham . The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent King Richard , to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. He became a popular folk figure in the Late Middle Ages , and his partisanship of the common people and opposition to the Sheriff are some of the earliest-recorded features of the legend, whereas his political interests and setting during
5720-663: The Midlands is markedly different from that of the London -based Chaucer and, though influenced by French in the scenes at court in Sir Gawain , there are in the poems also many dialect words, often of Scandinavian origin, that belonged to northwest England. Middle English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard , a London-based form of English, became widespread and the printing press started to standardise
5863-644: The Percy Society included The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood in its collection, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England . In 1850, John Mathew Gutch published his own collection of Robin Hood ballads, Robin Hood Garlands and Ballads, with the tale of the lytell Geste , that in addition to all of Ritson's collection, also included Robin Hood and the Pedlars and Robin Hood and
Beggars' Bush - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-479: The Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I . Another major figure, Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), was an English poet, whose works include Astrophel and Stella , The Defence of Poetry , and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia . Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as those by Thomas Campion (1567–1620), became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. John Donne (1572–1631)
6149-458: The regicide of Charles I were partially suppressed. Consequently, violent writings were forced underground, and many of those who had served in the Interregnum attenuated their positions in the Restoration. John Bunyan stands out beyond other religious authors of the period. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide to the Christian life. During
6292-416: The 16th century. It is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode , names the king as 'Edward'; and while it does show Robin Hood accepting the King's pardon, he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood. The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk , gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of
6435-487: The 17th century a second generation of metaphysical poets were writing, including Richard Crashaw (1613–1649), Andrew Marvell (1621–1678), Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637–1674) and Henry Vaughan (1622–1695). The Cavalier poets were another important group of 17th-century poets, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–1651). (King Charles reigned from 1625 and
6578-427: The 18th century were equally influenced by both Dryden and Pope. Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but the Restoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods, fiction and journalism. Religious writing often strayed into political and economic writing, just as political and economic writing implied or directly addressed religion. The Restoration
6721-403: The 305 ballads in his collection as Child Ballads Nos 117–154, which is how they're often referenced in scholarly works. In the 19th century, the Robin Hood legend was first specifically adapted for children. Children's editions of the garlands were produced and in 1820, a children's edition of Ritson's Robin Hood collection was published. Children's novels began to appear shortly thereafter. It
6864-641: The 9th century, that chronicles the history of the Anglo-Saxons . The poem Battle of Maldon also deals with history. This is a work of uncertain date, celebrating the Battle of Maldon of 991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking invasion. Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular, and some, including Beowulf , have survived to
7007-622: The Arthurian legends. In the Middle Ages , drama in the vernacular languages of Europe may have emerged from enactments of the liturgy . Mystery plays were presented in the porches of cathedrals or by strolling players on feast days . Miracle and mystery plays, along with morality plays (or "interludes"), later evolved into more elaborate forms of drama, such as was seen on the Elizabethan stages. Another form of medieval theatre
7150-721: The Crusades is mentioned in passing, Robin takes no stand against Prince John, and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th-century Robin Hood myth. Pyle's Robin Hood is a yeoman and not an aristocrat. The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded Saxon fighting Norman lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry 's Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands (1825) and Sir Walter Scott 's Ivanhoe (1819). In this last work in particular,
7293-531: The English May Games, where they fused with the Robin Hood legend. Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was Friar Tuck ), but these may have been originally two distinct types of performance. Alexander Barclay in his Ship of Fools , writing in c. 1500, refers to ' some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood ' – but the characters were brought together. Marian did not immediately gain
SECTION 50
#17327838473877436-717: The Forresters, it was published in 1998 as Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript . It appears to have been written in the 1670s. While all the ballads in the Manuscript had already been known and published during the 17th and 18th centuries (although most of the ballads in the Manuscript have different titles then ones they have listed under the Child Ballads), 13 of the ballads in Forresters are noticeably different from how they appeared in
7579-644: The Gest and put the Robin Hood and the Potter ballad in print for the first time. The only significant omission was Robin Hood and the Monk which would eventually be printed in 1806. In all, Ritson printed 33 Robin Hood ballads (and a 34th, now commonly known as Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon that he included as the second part of Robin Hood Newly Revived which he had retitled "Robin Hood and
7722-406: The Great , and Cynewulf . Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known, and his only known surviving work Cædmon's Hymn probably dates from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It
7865-471: The Merry Men to his aid. When his enemies do not fall for this ruse, he persuades them to drink with him instead (see Robin Hood's Delight ). In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Robin Hood ballads were mostly sold in "Garlands" of 16 to 24 Robin Hood ballads; these were crudely printed chap books aimed at the poor. The garlands added nothing to the substance of the legend but ensured that it continued after
8008-506: The Normans came is known as Middle English . This form of English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard (late Middle English), a London -based form of English, became widespread. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400), author of The Canterbury Tales , was a significant figure developing the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. The invention of
8151-534: The Restoration period, the most common manner of getting news would have been a broadsheet publication. A single, large sheet of paper might have a written, usually partisan, account of an event. It is impossible to satisfactorily date the beginning of the novel in English. However, long fiction and fictional biographies began to distinguish themselves from other forms in England during the Restoration period. An existing tradition of Romance fiction in France and Spain
8294-602: The Robin Hood ballads, published in 1888, Child removed the ballads from his earlier work that weren't traditional Robin Hood stories, gave the ballad Ritson titled Robin Hood and the Stranger back its original published title Robin Hood Newly Revived , and separated what Ritson had printed as the second part of Robin Hood and the Stranger as its own separate ballad, Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon . He also included alternate versions of ballads that had distinct, alternate versions. He numbered these 38 Robin Hood ballads among
8437-612: The Round Table . It was also the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Middle English Bible translations , notably Wycliffe's Bible , helped to establish English as a literary language. Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wycliffe . They appeared between about 1382 and 1395. These Bible translations were
8580-568: The Scotchman . In 1858, Francis James Child published his English and Scottish Ballads which included a volume grouping all the Robin Hood ballads in one volume, including all the ballads published by Ritson, the four stray ballads published since then, as well as some ballads that either mentioned Robin Hood by name or featured characters named Robin Hood but weren't traditional Robin Hood stories. For his more scholarly work, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads , in his volume dedicated to
8723-509: The Shryff off Notyngham , among other points of interest, contains the earliest reference to Friar Tuck. The plots of neither "the Monk" nor "the Potter" are included in the Gest ; and neither is the plot of " Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne ", which is probably at least as old as those two ballads although preserved in a more recent copy. Each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it
SECTION 60
#17327838473878866-473: The Stranger"). Ritson's interpretation of Robin Hood was also influential, having influenced the modern concept of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as it exists today. Himself a supporter of the principles of the French Revolution and admirer of Thomas Paine , Ritson held that Robin Hood was a genuinely historical, and genuinely heroic, character who had stood up against tyranny in
9009-561: The World (1700), and John Vanbrugh 's The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697) were "softer" and more middle-class in ethos, very different from the aristocratic extravaganza twenty years earlier, and aimed at a wider audience. During the 18th century literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason): a rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted
9152-415: The accused defended themselves on the grounds that the practice was a long-standing custom to raise money for churches, and they had not acted riotously but peaceably. It is from the association with the May Games that Robin's romantic attachment to Maid Marian (or Marion) apparently stems. A "Robin and Marion" figured in 13th-century French ' pastourelles ' (of which Jeu de Robin et Marion c. 1280
9295-408: The bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction!" Robin Hood is also mentioned in As You Like It . When asked about the exiled Duke Senior, the character of Charles says that he is "already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England". Justice Silence sings a line from an unnamed Robin Hood ballad,
9438-450: The bawdy Maid Marian of the May Games. She does not appear in extant versions of the ballad. James VI of Scotland was entertained by a Robin Hood play at Dirleton Castle produced by his favourite the Earl of Arran in May 1585, while there was plague in Edinburgh. In 1598, Anthony Munday wrote a pair of plays on the Robin Hood legend, The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington (published 1601). These plays drew on
9581-435: The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution . Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor . According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman . In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he
9724-456: The broadsides and garlands. 9 of these ballads are significantly longer and more elaborate than the versions of the same ballads found in the broadsides and garlands. For four of these ballads, the Forresters Manuscript versions are the earliest known versions. The 20th century grafted still further details on to the original legends. The 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood , starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland , portrayed Robin as
9867-496: The chief inspiration and cause of the Lollard movement, a pre- Reformation movement that rejected many of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church . Another literary genre, that of Romances , appears in English from the 13th century, with King Horn and Havelock the Dane , based on Anglo-Norman originals such as the Romance of Horn (c. 1170), but it was in the 14th century that major writers in English first appeared. These were William Langland , Geoffrey Chaucer and
10010-403: The day of the coronation of Charles II in 1661. This short play adapts the story of the king's pardon of Robin Hood to refer to the Restoration. However, Robin Hood appeared on the 18th-century stage in various farces and comic operas. Alfred, Lord Tennyson would write a four-act Robin Hood play at the end of the 19th century, "The Forrestors". It is fundamentally based on the Gest but follows
10153-417: The decline of the single broadside ballad. In the 18th century also, Robin Hood frequently appeared in criminal biographies and histories of highwaymen compendia. In 1765, Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore) published Reliques of Ancient English Poetry , including ballads from the 17th-century Percy Folio manuscript which had not previously been printed, most notably Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne which
10296-429: The direction which would be followed by later playwrights. The Spanish Tragedy is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592, which was popular and influential in its time, and established a new genre in English literature theatre, the revenge play . William Shakespeare (1564–1616) stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare wrote plays in
10439-408: The earlier tale is "a thriller" the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force. Other early texts are dramatic pieces, the earliest being the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham ( c. 1475). These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages; Robyn Hod and
10582-439: The early 17th century Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays ", as well as a number of his best known tragedies , including Macbeth and King Lear . In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays, including The Tempest . Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and
10725-627: The early 17th century was the King James Bible . This, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. This represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale , and it became the standard Bible of the Church of England . The Metaphysical poets John Donne (1572–1631) and George Herbert (1593–1633) were still alive after 1625, and later in
10868-449: The early Restoration period are the unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden , William Wycherley , and George Etherege , which reflect the atmosphere at Court, and celebrate an aristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. After a sharp drop in both quality and quantity in the 1680s, the mid-1690s saw a brief second flowering of the drama, especially comedy. Comedies like William Congreve 's The Way of
11011-435: The early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, although it is recognised they are not necessarily historically consistent. The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman . While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in
11154-468: The end of the 16th century. Near the end of the 16th century an unpublished prose life of Robin Hood was written, and included in the Sloane Manuscript . Largely a paraphrase of the Gest, it also contains material revealing that the author was familiar with early versions of a number of the Robin Hood broadside ballads. Not all of the medieval legend was preserved in the broadside ballads, there
11297-577: The fifth century, are called Old English . Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English. Despite being set in Scandinavia , it has achieved national epic status in England. However, following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. The English spoken after
11440-577: The first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his devotion to the Virgin Mary and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer , his anti-clericalism , and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear. Little John , Much the Miller's Son , and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck . The friar has been part of
11583-423: The forestor Gilbert Hood. Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle 's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century. Pyle's version firmly stamp Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Nevertheless, the adventures are still more local than national in scope: while King Richard's participation in
11726-546: The forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–1637) was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era . Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages and his characters embody the theory of humours , which was based on contemporary medical theory. Jonson's comedies include Volpone (1605 or 1606) and Bartholomew Fair (1614). Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher , who wrote
11869-449: The gentry, and identifies Maid Marian with "one of the semi-mythical Matildas persecuted by King John ". The plays are complex in plot and form, the story of Robin Hood appearing as a play-within-a-play presented at the court of Henry VIII and written by the poet, priest and courtier John Skelton . Skelton himself is presented in the play as acting the part of Friar Tuck. Some scholars have conjectured that Skelton may have indeed written
12012-407: The greatest English poets, wrote at this time of religious flux and political upheaval. Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. His celebrated Areopagitica , written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship,
12155-498: The height of the English Renaissance. The influence of the Italian Renaissance can also be found in the poetry of Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542), one of the earliest English Renaissance poets. He was responsible for many innovations in English poetry, and alongside Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517–1547) introduced the sonnet from Italy into England in the early 16th century. After William Caxton introduced
12298-477: The household of Sir John Paston . This fragment appears to tell the story of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne . There is also an early playtext appended to a 1560 printed edition of the Gest. This includes a dramatic version of the story of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar and a version of the first part of the story of Robin Hood and the Potter . (Neither of these ballads is known to have existed in print at
12441-429: The interests of the common people. J. C. Holt has been quick to point out, however, that Ritson "began as a Jacobite and ended as a Jacobin," and "certainly reconstructed him [Robin] in the image of a radical." In his preface to the collection, Ritson assembled an account of Robin Hood's life from the various sources available to him, and concluded that Robin Hood was born in around 1160, and thus had been active in
12584-414: The language. Chaucer is best known today for The Canterbury Tales . This is a collection of stories written in Middle English (mostly in verse although some are in prose ), that are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from Southwark to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral . Chaucer is a significant figure in the development of
12727-457: The last great poet of the English Renaissance" and published a number of works before 1660, including L'Allegro (1631), Il Penseroso (1634), the masque Comus (1638) and Lycidas (1638). However, his major epic works, including Paradise Lost (1667) were published in the Restoration period. Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester 's Sodom ,
12870-561: The later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games. The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is the 15th-century " Robin Hood and the Monk ". This is preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48. Written after 1450, it contains many of the elements still associated with
13013-524: The legend since at least the later 15th century, when he is mentioned in a Robin Hood play script. In modern popular culture, Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late-12th-century king Richard the Lionheart , Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade . This view first gained currency in
13156-492: The legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff. The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode ( c. 1500), a collection of separate stories that attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative. After this comes " Robin Hood and the Potter ", contained in a manuscript of c. 1503. "The Potter" is markedly different in tone from "The Monk": whereas
13299-439: The legitimacy of the vernacular , Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. At this time, literature in England was being written in various languages, including Latin, Norman-French, and English: the multilingual nature of the audience for literature in the 14th century is illustrated by the example of John Gower (c. 1330–1408). A contemporary of William Langland and
13442-506: The line is "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" in Act 5 scene 3 of Henry IV, part 2 . In Henry IV part 1 Act 3 scene 3, Falstaff refers to Maid Marian , implying she is a by-word for unwomanly or unchaste behaviour. Ben Jonson produced the incomplete masque The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood in part as a satire on Puritanism . It is about half finished and his death in 1637 may have interrupted writing. Jonson's only pastoral drama, it
13585-422: The literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the "Age of Dryden". He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry. Dryden's greatest achievements were in satiric verse in works like the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe (1682). Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was heavily influenced by Dryden, and often borrowed from him; other writers in
13728-453: The main vehicle for the popular Robin Hood legend. These broadside ballads were in some cases newly fabricated but were mostly adaptations of the older verse narratives. The broadside ballads were fitted to a small repertoire of pre-existing tunes resulting in an increase of "stock formulaic phrases" making them "repetitive and verbose", they commonly feature Robin Hood's contests with artisans: tinkers, tanners, and butchers. Among these ballads
13871-552: The modern Robin Hood—'King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!' as Richard the Lionheart calls him—makes his debut. In 1993, a previously unknown manuscript of 21 Robin Hood ballads (including two versions of " The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield ") turned up in an auction house and eventually wound up in the British Library . Called The Forresters Manuscript , after the first and last ballads, which are both titled Robin Hood and
14014-533: The nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott's historical romances inspired a generation of European painters, composers, and writers. The English language spread throughout the world with the development of the British Empire between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history . By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of
14157-464: The opening scene, for example, the usurper Woolfort calls Florez by his pseudonym Goswin, something he should not know.) Beggars' Bush received its initial publication in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 . The play was published in an individual quarto edition by Humphrey Robinson and Anne Moseley in 1661 ; the play was included in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679 and subsequent editions of their works. It also exists in
14300-532: The passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a 1609 quarto. Besides Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, the major poets of the early 17th century included the Metaphysical poets : John Donne (1572–1631), George Herbert (1593–1633), Henry Vaughan , Andrew Marvell , and Richard Crashaw . Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceits, that is far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors. The most important prose work of
14443-708: The period. Widsith , which appears in the Exeter Book of the late 10th century, gives a list of kings of tribes ordered according to their popularity and impact on history, with Attila King of the Huns coming first, followed by Eormanric of the Ostrogoths . It may also be the oldest extant work that tells the Battle of the Goths and Huns , which is also told in such later Scandinavian works as Hervarar's saga and Gesta Danorum . Lotte Hedeager argues that
14586-401: The play prior to 1616, though evidence for such an early date is lacking. The picture is also clouded by the question of the nature of Massinger's contribution; some critics have seen him as a direct collaborator with Fletcher, others merely as the reviser of an earlier Beaumont and Fletcher play. The text does show some of the discontinuities that can frequently be found in revised plays. (In
14729-457: The play, and produced this breakdown among them: Yet John H. Dorenkamp, in his 1967 edition of the play, rejects Beaumont's presence and attributes Acts I, II, and V to Massinger. (Dorenkamp agrees with Hoy and earlier critics in assigning Acts III and IV to Fletcher; Fletcher's distinctive pattern of stylistic and textual preferences makes his contribution easy to recognize.) The question of Beaumont's possible authorial contribution complicates
14872-401: The poor", although in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight , which he does not in the end require to be repaid; and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor. Of my good he shall haue some, Yf he be a por man. As it happens the next traveller
15015-614: The popular comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (probably 1607–1608), a satire of the rising middle class. Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play , which was popularized in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd (1558–1594), and then further developed later by John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632), The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1613). Other revenge tragedies include The Changeling written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley . George Chapman (c. 1559 – c. 1634)
15158-455: The present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between". Artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as 'yeomen' in the 14th century. From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility, such as in Richard Grafton's Chronicle at Large ; Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the century as the Earl of Huntingdon in two extremely influential plays, as he
15301-732: The present day. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The only surviving manuscript is the Nowell Codex , the precise date of which is debated, but most estimates place it close to the year 1000. Beowulf is the conventional title, and its composition is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: Cædmon , Bede , Alfred
15444-602: The printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 also helped to standardise the language, as did the King James Bible (1611), and the Great Vowel Shift . Poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the world's greatest dramatists. His plays have been translated into every primary living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In
15587-482: The printing press in England in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the production of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer (1549), a lasting influence on literary language. Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599) was one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan period, author of The Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596), an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating
15730-633: The question of the play's date. Beggars' Bush enters the historical record when it was performed for the Court at Whitehall Palace by the King's Men in the Christmas season of 1622 (on the evening of 27 December, "St. John's Day at night"). Some commentators argue that the play was probably new and current in that year, and was likely written shortly before – which would eliminate Beaumont, who had died in 1616. Scholars who favour Beaumont's presence must date
15873-486: The reign of Henry VIII , was briefly popular at court . Robin was often allocated the role of a May King , presiding over games and processions, but plays were also performed with the characters in the roles, sometimes performed at church ales , a means by which churches raised funds. A complaint of 1492, brought to the Star Chamber , accuses men of acting riotously by coming to a fair as Robin Hood and his men;
16016-530: The reign of Richard I. He thought that Robin was of aristocratic extraction, with at least 'some pretension' to the title of Earl of Huntingdon, that he was born in an unlocated Nottinghamshire village of Locksley and that his original name was Robert Fitzooth . Ritson gave the date of Robin Hood's death as 18 November 1247, when he would have been around 87 years old. In copious and informative notes Ritson defends every point of his version of Robin Hood's life. In reaching his conclusion Ritson relied or gave weight to
16159-420: The representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theatre. There are four complete or nearly complete extant English biblical collections of plays from the late medieval period. The most complete
16302-425: The restoration of the rightful rulers; true lovers are also re-united. Yet the play also contains serious aspects that have caused it to be classified as a tragicomedy by some commentators; "Through mixed modes Beggars Bush exhibits serious sociopolitical concerns to earn a classification that at first seems incongruous – a political tragicomedy." (The character of Clause, the King of the Beggars , also appears as
16445-565: The sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress . It saw Locke's Two Treatises on Government , the founding of the Royal Society , the experiments and the holy meditations of Robert Boyle , the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier , the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. The official break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards under Cromwell's Puritan regime created
16588-477: The so-called Pearl Poet , whose most famous work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Langland's Piers Plowman (written c. 1360–87) or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman ( William's Vision of Piers Plowman ) is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem , written in unrhymed alliterative verse . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance . It
16731-460: The state the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism and also played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism . The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot epitomized the spirit of the age. The term Augustan literature derives from authors of the 1720s and 1730s themselves, who responded to a term that George I of Great Britain preferred for himself. While George I meant
16874-401: The story about Will Scarlet . In the 18th century, the stories began to develop a slightly more farcical vein. From this period there are a number of ballads in which Robin is severely 'drubbed' by a succession of tradesmen including a tanner , a tinker , and a ranger . In fact, the only character who does not get the better of Hood is the luckless Sheriff. Yet even in these ballads Robin
17017-433: The subversive aspects of the legend, and see in the medieval Robin Hood ballads a plebeian literature hostile to the feudal order. By the early 15th century at the latest, Robin Hood had become associated with May Day celebrations, with revellers dressing as Robin or as members of his band for the festivities. This was not common throughout England, but in some regions the custom lasted until Elizabethan times, and during
17160-835: The surviving literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England , in the period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England ( Jutes and the Angles ) c. 450, after the withdrawal of the Romans , and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry , hagiography , sermons , Bible translations, legal works, chronicles and riddles. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from
17303-495: The term "Robin Hood" is often used to describe a heroic outlaw or rebel against tyranny. The origins of the legend as well as the historical context have been debated for centuries. There are numerous references to historical figures with similar names that have been proposed as possible evidence of his existence, some dating back to the late 13th century. At least eight plausible origins to the story have been mooted by historians and folklorists, including suggestions that "Robin Hood"
17446-466: The theme of Robin Hood's generosity to the poor more than the broadsheet ballads do in general. The 17th century introduced the minstrel Alan-a-Dale . He first appeared in a 17th-century broadside ballad , and unlike many of the characters thus associated, managed to adhere to the legend. The prose life of Robin Hood in Sloane Manuscript contains the substance of the Alan-a-Dale ballad but tells
17589-458: The throne of Flanders. The rightful royal family, including Gerrard and his daughter Jaculin, have fled, their current whereabouts unknown. Gerrard has adopted a masquerade as Claus, who is elected king of the beggars. Other characters also maintain disguises and have hidden identities, including the missing daughter of the Duke of Brabant. The play's plot shows the working-out of these complexities and
17732-455: The time, and there is no earlier record known of the "Curtal Friar" story.) The publisher describes the text as a ' playe of Robyn Hood, verye proper to be played in Maye games ', but does not seem to be aware that the text actually contains two separate plays. An especial point of interest in the "Friar" play is the appearance of a ribald woman who is unnamed but apparently to be identified with
17875-433: The title to reflect his might, they instead saw in it a reflection of Ancient Rome 's transition from rough and ready literature to highly political and highly polished literature. It is an age of exuberance and scandal, of enormous energy and inventiveness and outrage, that reflected an era when English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people found themselves in the midst of an expanding economy, lowering barriers to education, and
18018-439: The traditions of placing Robin Hood as the Earl of Huntingdon in the time of Richard I and making the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John rivals with Robin Hood for Maid Marian's hand. The return of King Richard brings a happy ending. With the advent of printing came the Robin Hood broadside ballads . Exactly when they displaced the oral tradition of Robin Hood ballads is unknown but the process seems to have been completed by
18161-595: The unquestioned role; in Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage , his sweetheart is "Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses". Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian. The earliest preserved script of a Robin Hood play is the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham This apparently dates to the 1470s and circumstantial evidence suggests it was probably performed at
18304-401: The work is far older, however, and that it likely dates back to the late 6th or early 7th century, citing the author's knowledge of historical details and accuracy as proof of its authenticity. She does note, however, that some authors, such as John Niles , have argued the work was invented in the 10th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English , from
18447-491: The world of beggars, thieves, and gypsies; in this respect it can be classed with plays of its own era like The Spanish Gypsy , Massinger's The Guardian , Suckling's The Goblins , and Brome's A Jovial Crew, as well as a group of earlier works, like the Robin Hood plays of Anthony Munday . Although the timeframe is inconsistent, Beggars' Bush is set seven years after a fictional war between Flanders and Brabant . The victorious Flemish general Woolfort has usurped
18590-703: The world population at the time, During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these colonies and the US started to produce their significant literary traditions in English. Cumulatively, from 1907 to the present, numerous writers from Great Britain , both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland , the US, and former British colonies have received the Nobel Prize for works in English more than in any language. Old English literature , or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses
18733-572: The writing of Ormulum ( c. 1150 – c. 1180 ), the blending of both Old English and Anglo-Norman elements in English are highlighted for the first time, marking the beginning of the Middle English period. Afterwards, Layamon in Brut adapted the Norman-French of Wace to produce the first English-language work to present the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of
18876-620: Was a stock alias used by or in reference to bandits. The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the alliterative poem Piers Plowman , thought to have been composed in the 1370s, followed shortly afterwards by a quotation of a later common proverb, "many men speak of Robin Hood and never shot his bow", in Friar Daw's Reply ( c. 1402) and a complaint in Dives and Pauper (1405–1410) that people would rather listen to "tales and songs of Robin Hood" than attend Mass. Robin Hood
19019-538: Was also the time when John Locke wrote many of his philosophical works. His two Treatises on Government, which later inspired the thinkers in the American Revolution . The Restoration moderated most of the more strident sectarian writing, but radicalism persisted after the Restoration. Puritan authors such as John Milton were forced to retire from public life or adapt, and those authors who had preached against monarchy and who had participated directly in
19162-431: Was another important figure in Elizabethan poetry (see Jacobean poetry below). Among the earliest Elizabethan plays are Gorboduc (1561) by Sackville and Norton , and Thomas Kyd 's (1558–1594) The Spanish Tragedy (1592). Gorboduc is notable especially as the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse , and for the way it developed elements, from the earlier morality plays and Senecan tragedy , in
19305-462: Was cultivated in the households of the gentry, and that it would be mistaken to see in him a figure of peasant revolt. He is not a peasant but a yeoman, and his tales make no mention of the complaints of the peasants, such as oppressive taxes. He appears not so much as a revolt against societal standards as an embodiment of them, being generous, pious, and courteous, opposed to stingy, worldly, and churlish foes. Other scholars have by contrast stressed
19448-642: Was executed in 1649). The best known of the Cavalier poets are Robert Herrick , Richard Lovelace , Thomas Carew and Sir John Suckling . They "were not a formal group, but all were influenced by" Ben Jonson. Most of the Cavalier poets were courtiers, with notable exceptions. For example, Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a Cavalier poet. Cavalier works make use of allegory and classical allusions, and are influenced by Roman authors Horace, Cicero and Ovid . John Milton (1608–1674) "was
19591-534: Was no longer in English hands, so that the West Saxon literary language had no more influence than any other dialect and Middle English literature was written in many dialects that corresponded to the region, history, culture, and background of individual writers. In this period religious literature continued to enjoy popularity and Hagiographies were written, adapted and translated: for example, The Life of Saint Audrey , Eadmer 's (c. 1060 – c. 1126). During
19734-461: Was popular in England. One of the most significant figures in the rise of the novel in the Restoration period is Aphra Behn , author of Oroonoko (1688), who was not only the first professional female novelist, but she may be among the first professional novelists of either sex in England. As soon as the previous Puritan regime's ban on public stage representations was lifted, drama recreated itself quickly and abundantly. The most famous plays of
19877-447: Was published, probably in 1706 (the quarto is undated). This was later adapted into an opera , which was published in 1768. Another adaptation called The Merchant of Bruges was printed in 1816, 1824, and 1834. And John Dryden modeled the main plot of his Marriage à la mode ( 1672 ) on Beggars' Bush. The play is one of several works of English Renaissance drama that present a lighthearted, romanticized, Robin-Hood -like view of
20020-618: Was taken from a performance text. The Lame Commonwealth was printed in Francis Kirkman 's The Wits, or Sport Upon Sport ( 1662 ), a collection of twenty-seven drolls. Beggars' Bush was revived and adapted during the Restoration era. Samuel Pepys saw an early production at Gibbon's Tennis Court on 20 November 1660 . In a 3 January 1661 performance of the play, Pepys, for the first time in his life, saw women appear onstage. One popular adaptation titled The Royal Merchant
20163-588: Was the mummers' plays , a form of early street theatre associated with the Morris dance , concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood . These were folk tales re-telling old stories, and the actors travelled from town to town performing these for their audiences in return for money and hospitality. Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe . Medieval mystery plays focused on
20306-411: Was the period in which King Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the Third Crusade . William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play The Two Gentlemen of Verona . In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They comment, "By
20449-534: Was written in sophisticated verse and included supernatural action and characters. It has had little impact on the Robin Hood tradition but earns mention as the work of a major dramatist. The 1642 London theatre closure by the Puritans interrupted the portrayal of Robin Hood on the stage. The theatres would reopen with the Restoration in 1660. Robin Hood did not appear on the Restoration stage, except for "Robin Hood and his Crew of Souldiers" acted in Nottingham on
#386613