Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

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	392	ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.



	ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTAL FRIAR. This chant was found by Dr. Rimbault, written in a contemporary hand, on the fly-leaf of a copy of Parthenia, which was printed in 1611. The copies of the ballad in Anthony a Wood's and in the Pepys Collections (vol. i., No. 37) are entitled " The famous battle between Robin Hood and the curtail Fryer. To a new Northern tune." The ballad of " The noble Fisherman; or, Robin Hood's preferment," is directed to be sung to the tune of In Summer time, with which line this ballad begins; and perhaps both derive the name from the ballad of " King Edward the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth," which commences in a similar way. The last was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, to William Griffith, in 1564-5. Percy reprints from a copy in the Bodleian Library, dated 1596, and the tune is mentioned in " Noctes Templarise," written in the year 1599 (Harl. MSS.) :—" This night Stradilax, in great pomp, miscalled himself a Lord. . . Poet Natazonius saluted him to the tune of The Tanner and the King." The ballad begins thus:— " In summer time, when leaves grow greene, And blossoms bedecke the tree, King Edward wolde a hunting ryde, Some pastime for to see." , Another copy will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 176.