The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood NT, books in English
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The Merry Adventures of
Robin Hood
Howard Pyle
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The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
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
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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.
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The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
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.
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The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
How Robin Hood Cane to Be an
Outlaw
IN MERRY ENGLAND in the time of old, when
good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived
within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near
Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was
Robin Hood. No archer ever lived that could speed a gray
goose shaft with such skill and cunning as his, nor were
there ever such yeomen as the sevenscore merry men that
roamed with him through the greenwood shades. Right
merrily they dwelled within the depths of Sherwood
Forest, suffering neither care nor want, but passing the
time in merry games of archery or bouts of cudgel play,
living upon the King’s venison, washed down with
draughts of ale of October brewing.
Not only Robin himself but all the band were outlaws
and dwelled apart from other men, yet they were beloved
by the country people round about, for no one ever came
to jolly Robin for help in time of need and went away
again with an empty fist.
And now I will tell how it came about that Robin
Hood fell afoul of the law.
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