Illustrated London News March 15th 1952

Double page spread from the Illustrated London News of March 15th 1952 showing some fantastic stills from Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood.

Richard Todd and James Robertson Justice

Robin Hood T-Shirt

Robin Hood has been one of the most enduring heroes of popular culture ever since his deeds were first celebrated in medieval English ballads. The steady flow of books and films about this 'noble outlaw' in recent years demonstrates the legend's continuing appeal throughout the world and its astonishing amenability to fresh interpretation.

Wynkyn de Worde

Above is a copy of the first page of the Wynkyn de Worde edition of ‘a lytell geste of Robyn hode and his meyne.’ (Cambridge University Library Ms. Sel.5.18). The date of this edition is difficult to put more precisely than between 1492 and 1534.

Wynkyn de Worde (Jan van Wynken) d.1534/5 was William Caxton’s journeyman who arrived in England about 1481. After Caxton’s death in 1491 de Worde took over his former master’s print shop in Westminster and in about 1500 moved his presses into ‘flete street at the sygne of the sone.’ Fleet Street later became known as the ‘spiritual home of British journalism.’

During his career de Worde published over 400 books in 800 editions, on subjects like religion, poetry, husbandry and household practice. But he also printed children’s books, Christmas carols, ballads and romantic novels for a mass audience, including this surviving edition of ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’.

To read more about ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’ please click on the Robin Hood Ballads and Robin Hood History labels.

News Flashes About Robin Hood

A very rare item. A promotional headed paper for Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952).
Part of the publicity campaign for the live-action film.

Richard Todd and Archie Duncan

Joan Rice

I have recently received an email from Maria Steyn, a close friend of Joan Rice. Maria very kindly supplied information on the life of Joan when I began this web site over a year ago. They spent a great deal of time together in Maidenhead during the 1970’s. But by the late 1980’s Maria lost contact with Joan and her husband Ken McKenzie, due to Joan’s ill health.

Maria was very pleased to read the recent information supplied by Joan’s niece on this web site in January and is keen to get in touch with her, or anybody else who knew Joan and her family. We both appreciate that information like this, is of a very personal nature. So if you would like to contact Maria, please leave an email address at : disneysrobin@googlemail.com and I will pass on her email address to you.

Martitia Hunt

The tall, elegant, velvet voiced Martitia Hunt (1900-1969) was the perfect choice to play the part of Queen Eleanor in Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952). To read the biography of this wonderfully talented actress, please click on the ‘label’ Martita Hunt in the right-hand column or below.

The Play of ‘Robin Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham’

This fragment of a genuine medieval Robin Hood play is written on the upper half of a half sheet of paper (8’’x10’’) containing household accounts from East Anglia dated May 1475-August 1475 and is kept at Trinity College, Cambridge, MS.R.2. 64 (fragment)

This verse play of twenty-one lines is possibly founded on the ballad of ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne,’ although in this document, Robin’s opponent is not mentioned. But included for the first time in the outlaw gang, is ‘ffrere Tuck’. The manuscript was once part of the collection of ‘Paston Papers’ and therefore could be the very play mentioned in 1473 in a letter by Sir John Paston, where he described a re-absconding servant hired to play Robin Hood and Saint George, who had ‘goon into Bernysdale.’

The speakers are not identified in the fragmentary text, so any re-construction is conjectural.

Knight: Syr sheryffe, for thy sake,
Robyn Hode wull I take.

Sheriff: I wyll the gyffe golde and fee;
This be-hest thou holde me. [If you keep this pledge with me]

(The Sheriff leaves and Robin Hood is challenged by the bounty-hunting knight)

Knight: Robyn Hode, ffayre and fre,
Under this lynde shote we.

Robin: With the shot y wyll
Alle thy lustes to full-fyll.

(Robin and the knight fight)

Knight: Have at the pryke! [I shoot at the target]

Robin: And I cleve the styke. [And I cleave the wand]

(Robin wins)

Knight: Let us caste [throw] the stone.

Robin: I graunte well, be Seynt John!

(Robin wins again)

Knight: Let us caste the exaltre.

(They toss a wooden axle)

Robin: Have a foot before the!
Syr Knyght, ye have a falle.

(They wrestle and Robin wins)

Knight: And I the, Robyn, qwyte; [I shall quit you Robin]
Owte on the! I blow myn horne.

Robin: Hit ware better be un-borne: [better not to have been born]
Lat us fight at outtraunce. [let us fight to the uttermost]
He that fleth, God gyfe hym myschaunce!

(Robin kills the knight)

Robin: Now I have the maystry here,
Off I smyte this sory swyre. (Robin cuts off the knight’s head)
This knyghtys clothis wolle I were,
And in my hode his hede woll bere. (Robin disguises himself as the knight)

We are now with two unknown members of Robin’s band of outlaws, probably Little John and Will Scarlet . Outlaw 1 seems to meet Outlaw 2 as he approaches a conflict in the forest between Robin’s men and the Sheriff.

Outlaw 1: Welle mete, felowe myn,
What herst thou of gode Robyn?

Outlaw 2: Robyn Hode and his menye
With the sheryffe takyn be.

Outlaw 1: Sette on foote with gode wyll
And the sheryffe wull we kyll.

(The two outlaws watch the fight going on in the distance)

Outlaw 2: Be-holde wele Frere Tuke*
Howe he dothe his bowe pluke!

*First known mention of Friar Tuck amongst Robin Hood’s outlaw band

(The Sheriff enters with Friar Tuck and the other outlaws as prisoners: he addresses Little John and Scarlet)

Sheriff: Yeld yow, syrs, to the sheryffe,
Or ells shall your bowes clyffe. [be cut]

(Outlaws 1 and 2 surrender to the Sheriff)

Outlaw 1: Now we be bownden alle in same:
Frere Tuke, this is no game.

Sheriff: Come thou forth, thou fals outlawe,
Thou shall be hangyde and y-drawe. [hung and drawn]

Friar Tuck: Now, allas, what shall we doo?
We moste to the prysone goo.

Sheriff: Opyn the gatis faste anon,
And late theis thevys ynne gon. [and let these thieves go inside]