ROBIN HOOD. The oldest mention of Robin Hood at present known occurs in the second edition—what is called the B text—of Piers the Plowman, the date of which is about 1377. In passus v. of that poem the figure of Sloth is represented assaying:
“I can noujte perfitly my pater-noster, as the prest it syngeth:
But I can rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erie of Chesterer.” He is next mentioned by Wyntown in his Scottish Chronicle, written about 1420:
“Lytel Jhon and Robyne Hude Waythmen ware commendyd gude;
In Yngilwode and Barnysdale
Thai oysyd all this time [c. 1283] thare trawale”; next by Bower in his additions to Fordun’s Scotichroηicon about 1450:
“Hoc in tempore [1266] de exheredatis et bannitis surrexit et caput erexit ille famosissimus sicarius Robertus Hode et Littill Johanne cum eorum complicibus, de quibus stolidum vulgus hianter in comoediis et tragoediis prurienter festum faciunt et super ceteras romaucias, mimos, et bardanos cantitare delectantur.”
Of his popularity in the latter half of the loth and in the 16th centuries there are many signs. Just one passage must be quoted as of special importance because closely followed by Grafton, Stow, and Camden. It is from Mair’s Historia Majoris Bmtanniae tam Angliae quam Scotiae, which appeared in 1521....
“Circa haec teuιpora [Ricardi Primi], ut auguror, Robertus Hudus Anglus et Parvus Joannes latrones famatissimi in nemoribus latuerunt, solum opulentorum virorum bona deripientes. Nullum nisi eos iuvadentem vel resistentem pro suarum rerum tuitione occideruut. Centum sagittarios ad ρugnam aptissimos Robertus latrociniis aluit, quos 400 viri fortissimi invadere non audebant. Rebus hujus Rοbcrti gcstis iota Britannia in cαntibus utitur. F∙<υminam nullam opprimi permisit nec pauperum bona surripuit, verum eos ex abbatum bonis sublatis opipare pavit. Viri rapinam improbo, sed latronum omnium bumanissimus et princeps erat.”
In the Elizabethan era and afterwards mentions abound; see the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Drayton, Warner, Munday, Camden, Stow, Braithwaite, Fuller, «fee.
Of the ballads themselves, Robin Hood and the Monk is possibly as old as the reign of Edward II.; Robin Hood and the Potter and Robyn and Gandelyn are certainly not later than the 15th century. Most important of all is A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, which perhaps was first printed about 1490, although the earliest extant complete copy belongs to about 1520. This is evidently founded on older ballads; we read in The Seconde Eytte, 11. 176 and 177:
“He wente hym forthe full mery syngynge,
As men have told in tale.”
In fact it does for the Robin Hood cycle what a few years before Sir Thomas Malory had done for the Arthurian romances,—what in the 6th century b.c. Pisistratus is said to have done for the Homeric poems.
These are the facts about him and his balladry. Of conjectures there is no end. He has been represented as the last of the Saxons,—as a Saxon holding out against the Norman conquerors so late as the end of the 12th century (see Thierry’s Harman Conquest, and compare Ivanhoe). Others maintain that he was a follower of Simon de Montfort. A third theory associates him with the earl of Lancaster of Edward II.’s time: Hunter believed that he could identify him with a certain Robin Hood mentioned in the Exchequer accounts of this reign.
For our part, we are not disinclined to believe that the Robin Hood story has some historical basis, however fanciful and romantic the superstructure. We parallel it with the Arthurian story, and hold that, just as there was probably a real Arthur, however different from the hero of the trouvères, so there was a real Hood, however now enlarged and disguised by the accretions of legend. That Charlemagne and Richard I. of England became the subjects of romances does not prevent our believing in their existence; nor need Hood’s mythical life deprive him of his natural one. Sloth in Langland’s poem couples him, as we have seen, with Randle, earl of Chester; and no one doubts this nobleman’s existence because he had “rymes” made about him. We believe him to have been the third Randle (see Bishop Percy’s Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, i. 260). And possibly enough Hood was contemporary with that earl, who “flourished” in the reigns of Richard I., John, and Henry III. Wyntown and Major, as we have seen, assign him to that period. It is impossible to believe with Hunter that he lived so late as Edward II.’s reign. This would leave no time for the growth of his myth; and his myth was, as is evident from what we have already said and quoted, full grown in the first half of the 14th century.
But, whether he lived or not, and whenever he lived, it is certain that many mythical elements are contained in his story. Both his name and his exploits remind us of the woodland spirit Robin Goodfellow and his merry pranks. He is fond of disguising himself, and devoted to fun and practical jokes. And the connexion of the May games with him points to a fusion with some older memory, —with some sun-god. In fact, the outlaw would seem to have become a centre around which gathered and settled older traditions of men and of spirits and of gods. Folklore that was rapidly perishing thus gave itself a new consistency and life. The name Robin (a French form from Rob, which is of course a short form for Robert) would serve both for “the shrewd and knavish sprite”—the German Knecht Ruprecht (see Grimm’s Teut. Myth., p. 504, trans. Stallybrass)—and for the bandit (see “Roberdes Knaues” in the Prologue of Piers the Plowman, 1. 44 and the note in Warton’s Hist, of Eng. Poet., ii. 95, ed. 1840). The name Hood is still a common enough surname, of which the earlier shape is Odo (see “Houdart,” »fee., in Larchey’s Diet, des Homs) ; notice too the name Hudson. But it also reminds one of the German familiar spirit Hudekin, or possibly of the German Witikind (see Wright’s Essays on the Middle Ages, ii. 207). How certain it is that the Robin Hood story attracted to it and appropriated other elements is illustrated by its subsequent history,— its history after the 14th century. Thus later on we find it connected with the Morris dance; but the Morris dance was not known in England before the 16th century, or late in the 15th. And the form of the story was greatly modified in the beginning of the 17th century to suit the ideas of the age. It was then that a peer was imported into it, and the yeoman of the older version was metamorphosed into the earl of Huntingdon, for whom in the following century Stukeley discovered a satisfactory pedigree! At last, with the change of times, the myth ceased growing. Its rise and development and decay deserve a more thorough study than they have yet received.
What perhaps is its greatest interest as we first see it is its expression of the popular mind about the close of the Middle Ages. Robin Hood is at that time the people’s ideal as Arthur is that of the upper classes. He is the ideal yeoman as Arthur is the ideal knight. He readjusts the distribution of property: he robs the rich and endows the poor. He is an earnest worshipper of the Virgin, but a bold and vigorous hater of monks and abbots. He is the great sportsman, the incomparable archer, the lover of the greenwood and of a free life, brave, adventurous, jocular, open-handed, a protector of women. Observe his instructions to Little John :—
“Loke ye do no housbonde lιanno That tylleth with his plough.
No more ye shall no good y eman That walketh by grene wode shawe,
Ne no knyght ne no squyer That wolde be a good felawe.
These bysshoppes and tlιyse archebysshoppes Ye shall them bete and bynde;
The hye sheryfe of Notynghamo Hym holde in your mynde.”
And we are told
For doute of dedely synne;
Wolde he never do company h<arme
That ony woman was ynue.”
See also Drayton’s Polyolbioη, Song xxvi. The story is localized in Barnsdale and Sherwood, i.e., between Doncaster and Nottingham.
The best collections of the Robin Hood poems are those of Ritson (8vo, 1795) and Gutch (2d ed., 1847), and of Professor Child in the 5th volume of his invaluable English and Scotch Ballads. The versions in the Percy Folio MS. are unhappily mutilated; but they should be consulted, for they are all more or less unique, and that on “Robin Hoode his death” is of singular interest. The literary and artistic value of the Robin Hood ballads cannot be pronounced consider*
able; their value is great, but it is in other respects. There is, however, real vigour and force in this fragment on the hero’s death. The earliest “Garland” was printed in 1670. (J. W. H. )
ROBINS Benjamin (1707-1751), an English natural philosopher, was born at Bath in 1707. His parents were Quakers in poor circumstances, and gave him very little education. Aided solely by his own talent for exact science, he made considerable progress, and attracted so much notice that he was introduced to Pemberton, who befriended and encouraged him. For a time he maintained himself by teaching mathematics, but soon devoted himself to more congenial work. In particular he carried out an extensive series of experiments in gunnery, the results of which were afterwards embodied in his famous treatise on Hew Principles in Gunnery (8vo, London, 1742). In this treatise is described the ballistic pendulum, an instrument which has become classical in the history of dynamics, and which bears the name of its inventor. Robins also made a number of very important experiments on the resistance of the air to the motion of projectiles, and on the force of gunpowder, with computation of the velocities thereby communicated to military projectiles. He compared the results of his theory with experimental determinations of the ranges of mortars and cannon, and gave practical maxims for the management of artillery. He also made observations on the flight of rockets and wrote on the advantages of rifled barrels. So great was his fame as a scientific artillerist that Euler translated his work on gunnery into German and added to it a critical commentary of his own. Of less interest nowadays are Robins’s more purely mathematical writings, such as his Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton’s Methods of Fluxions and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios (8vo, London, 1735), “A Demonstration of the Eleventh Proposition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Treatise of Quadratures” ...{Phil. Trans., 1727), and similar works. Besides his scientific labours Robins took an active part in politics. He wrote pamphlets in support of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, and was secretary of a committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the conduct of that minister. He also wrote a preface to the Report on the Proceedings of the Board of General Officers on their Examination into the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, in which he gave an apology for the affair at Preston-pans. In 1750 he was appointed engineer-general to the East India Company, and went out to superintend the reconstruction of their forts. The climate, however, disagreed with him, and he died on 29th July 1751. His works were published in two volumes 8vo in 1761.
ROBINSON Edward (1794-1863), author of the Biblical Researches, a son of the Rev. William Robinson, of Puritan ancestry, was born at Southington, Connecticut, United States, on 10th April 1794. He was educated at Hamilton College, New York, where he graduated in 1816. He served as a tutor at the college during 1817-18, and then engaged in private study of the Greek classics until 1821, when he went to Andover, Massachusetts, in order to publish an edition of the Iliad. There he became a pupil of Moses Stuart, the enthusiastic professor of Biblical studies in the theological seminary, and was made instructor of Hebrew there in 1823. In 1826 he resigned his position at Andover and went to Europe, where he studied Hebreλv under Gesenius at Halle, and also history at Berlin under Neander, remaining in Europe until 1830. In 1828 he married Therese Albertine Luise von Jakob, daughter of an eminent professor of philosophy at Halle. This highly cultured lady was already well known as an authoress under the pseudonym of “Talvj.” She became of great assistance to her husband in his learned pursuits. In 1830 he was again called to Andover as professor extraordinary of Biblical literature, and entered with enthusiasm upon the work of instruction and the publication of scholarly works upon the Bible. In 1831 he founded the Biblical Repository, a theological review which introduced a new era in theological periodicals in America, and which subsequently passed over into the Bibliotheca Sacra. In the same year he received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth College. In 1832 he published a revised edition of Taylor’s translation of Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible, and in the ensuing year a popular Dictionary of the Bible and a translation of Buttmann’s Greek Grammar (3d ed., ...1851). Such severe literary work deprived him of his health and he was compelled to resign his professorship. He now devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits for some years. In 1834 he published a revised edition of Newcome’s Greek Harmony of the Gospels. In 1836 he issued a translation of Gesenius’s Hebrew Lexicon and in the same year a Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament. These lexicons have been the companions of Biblical students until the present time, having passed through a series of revisions. The Hebrew Lexicon reached a fifth edition in 1854, the Greek Lexicon a second edition in 1847. They are both now (1885) passing through another revision by his pupils. In 1837 Robinson was called to the professorship of Biblical literature in the Union Theological Seminary, New York, in which position he remained until his death, giving it the reputation of his scholarship and the benefits of his great experience in Biblical study and practical skill in instruction. In his letter of acceptance he gave an outline of the field of Biblical study which showed his mastery of the subject and his forecast of its future in America. He accepted this position with the understanding that he should receive leave of absence for some years in order to explore the lands of the Bible. He spent a considerable portion of the year 1838 in these explorations and became the pioneer and father of modern Biblical geography. He published his Biblical Researches in 1841 in three volumes, simultaneously in Berlin and Boston. His services were recognized by a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1842, the degree of D.D. from the university of Halle in 1842, and the degree of LL.D. from Yale College in 1844. In 1852 he made a second visit to Palestine and published its results in the supplemental volume to the second edition of his Biblical Researches in 1856. The third edition of the whole work appeared in 1867 in three volumes. Robinson regarded these researches as preliminary to a systematic work on the geography of the Bible; but he was spared only to complete a mere fragment, which was published posthumously under the title of Physical Geography of the Holy Land in 1865. In 1845 Robinson also issued a Greek Harmony of the Gospels and in 1846 an English Harmony, both of which have passed through many editions and have remained the standard text-books in America until the present day. The Greek Harmony has renewed its life in a revised edition by Professor Riddle in 1885. Besides these more important works he published from time to time a vast number of articles in periodicals, and in 1859 a Memoir of the Rev. William Robinson, his father. Robinson was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, but his voice was seldom heard in the pulpit or in ecclesiastical bodies. In his declining years he was afflicted with an incurable disease of the eyes and other maladies. He died in New York City on 27th January 1863.
Robinson’s work in Biblical geography was both fundamental and monumental. Dean Stanley once said, “Dr Robinson was the first man who saw Palestine with his eyes open to what he ought to see”; and Ritter recognizes the “union of the acutest observation of topographical and local conditions with much preparatory study.” He was gifted with great practical sense and unusual accuracy of observation; but hewas extreme in his criticism of the local legends of the Holy Land, and not sufficiently skilled in historic criticism. Although great progress has been made in Biblical geography in the last quarter of this century, yet the work of Robinson is still classical.
See The Life, Writings, and Character of Edward Robinson, by Henry B. Smith and Boswell D. Hitchcock (New York, 1863), and Services in Adam Chapel at the Dedication of the New Buildings of Union Theological Seminary (New York, 1885).
ROBINSON John (1575-1625), one of the founders of Independency in England (see vol. xii. p. 725), was born most probably near Scrooby in Nottinghamshire in 1575. He was entered of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1592, and graduated in ordinary course, becoming a fellow in 1599. Having taken orders he officiated for some time in the neighbourhood of Norwich, but his Puritan leanings soon caused his suspension by the bishop. After having ministered for some time to a congregation of sympathizers in Norwich he resigned his fellowship in 1604, and, proceeding to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, he there joined a company who had bound themselves by covenant before God “to walk in all His ways made known or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatever it should cost them.” In 1606 he became minister at Scrooby, but the increasing hostility of the authorities towards nonconformity soon forced him and his people to think of flight, and, not without difficulty, they succeeded in making their escape in detachments to Hol-land. Robinson settled in Amsterdam in 1608, but in the following year removed to Leyden, and ministered there to members of his former congregation. In 1620 a considerable minority of these sailed for England in the “Speed-well,” and ultimately crossed the Atlantic in the “Mayflower”; it was Robinson’s intention to follow as soon as practicable along with the rest of his flock, but he died before the plan could be carried out, on 1st March 1625.
Besides preaching to his congregation, and, during his later years, corresponding with those of his people who had settled in New England, Robinson devoted himself to theological study, and became a member of the university of Leyden. Amongst his other publications may be mentioned Justification of Separation from the Church (1610), Apologia Brownistarum (1619), A Defence of the Doctrine propounded by the Synod of Dort (1624), and a volume of Essays, or Observations Divine and Moral, printed in 1628. His Works, with a memoir by R. Ashton, were reprinted in 3 vols, in 1851.
ROBINSON John Thomas Romney (1792-1882), the inventor of the cup-anemometer, was born in Dublin on 23d April 1792. He studied at Trinity College and obtained a fellowship in 1814; for some years he was deputy professor of natural philosophy, until he relinquished his fellowship in 1821 on obtaining the college living of Enniskillen. In 1823 he was appointed astronomer of the Armagh observatory (see Observatory), with which he (from 1824) combined the living of Carrickmacross, but he always resided at the observatory, engaged in re-searches connected with astronomy and physics, until his death on 28th February 1882.
Robinson wrote a number of papers in scientific journals and transactions, and the Armagh catalogue of stars ( Places of 5345 Stars observed from 1828 to 1854 at the Armagh Observatory, Dublin, 1859), but he is best known as the inventor of the cup-anemometer for registering the velocity of the wind. This instrument (which he erected at the Armagh observatory in 1846 and which has since come into general use) consists of four light arms forming a horizontal cross, carrying four hemispherical cups and turning freely about a vertical axis. By an endless screw attached to the axis a system of wheelwork is set going, and the velocity of the wind is indicated by one or more dials, or it may be registered continuously by a pencil drawn by clockwork along a dial or drum turned by the anemometer, or (as in the modification now generally used) by a metallic screw of only one thread, which leaves a tracing on a sheet of metallic paper folded round a drum revolving by clockwork. It has been found by elaborate experiments by Dr Robinson ( Trans. R. Irish Academy, vol. xxii.; Phil. Trans., 1878 and 1880) and others that the centre of each cup moves with a velocity very nearly equal to one-third of that of the wind.
