598 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 165. 



dition must have been as original in France as in 

 England and Scotland. 



As the fame of Robin thus flourished not only in 

 England, but in Scotland and France, the con- 

 clusion seems inevitable, that he was no mere 

 English outlaw dwelling in some English forest, 

 but an ideal character, resulting from the general 

 lawless state of society in remote times in these 

 three kingdoms. 



It may now be remarked, with reference to 

 what has been commonly urged as to Robin hav- 

 ing been a real personage who had lived in Eng- 

 land, that it is perfectly indisputable that there 

 have been real persons in England, and in Scot- 

 land also, of the name of Hood, and that many 

 of them must, in all likelihood, have borne the 

 very common Christian name of Robin ; but, from 

 such a fact, at once narrow, vague, and locally 

 limited in its character, to draw the conclusion 

 that some one of those who happened to bear that 

 name was the renowned Robin of tradition, in his 

 romantic conduct and character, and in his wide- 

 spread celebrity, seems to us both illogical and 

 unphilosophical. The name John Bull, applied to 

 the English nation, implies no real personage, 

 though we suppose there have been men of that 

 name. And the gratuitous supposition in Robin's 

 case, arising from mere similarity in name, and 

 which has always reference to England only, can 

 never account for Robin's French fame and French 

 name, even supposing that we should be so com- 

 plaisant as to keep out of view his former great 

 celebrity in Scotland. 



We do certainly admit that the traditionary 

 fame of Robin has been much better preserved in 

 ballads in England than anywhere else. We can, 

 perhaps, account for the comparative oblivion of 

 Robin of the Wood in Scotland, by the fact that, 

 in the Lowlands, the ancient woods have been 

 long destroyed ; and as for the Highlands, Robin 

 never seems to have enjoyed Celtic fame ; and the 

 effect of the act of parliament above referred to 

 must also be taken into account. Matters were 

 entirely the reverse in England, where the ancient 

 forests have been preserved to some extent even 

 to the present day, and where Robin's " pleys 

 and personages " were not prohibited by the legis- 

 lature. 



With reference to the state of the tradition in 

 France, we know nothing more of Robin's position 

 there than what has been stated above. 



In what has been advanced, it is of course not 

 meant to be denied that the name and fame of 

 Robin must have originated somewhere. From 

 the wide prevalence of the myth, and the unity, 

 yet diversity, in the name (Robin Hood alias De 

 Bois), it may probably have been of ancient Teu- 

 tonic origin. Or the wandering minstrels of a 

 later, yet very remote, period may have been the 

 authors, as they and their successors were, no 



doubt, the great upholders and embellishers of 

 Robin's fame. We suspect no clear light can now 

 be thrown on these points ; but the myth bears all 

 the marks of great antiquity, and of having sunk 

 deep into the popular minds of England, Scotland, 

 and France ; and it would rather seem to have 

 obtained its greatest development in England. 



We shall now briefly sum up what, it is sub- 

 mitted, there are good grounds for inferring. 



1. The name Robin Hood was no patronymic, 

 but a purely descriptive name. 



2. It was the name of the ideal personification 

 of a class — the outlaws of former times. 



3. Robin's fame had extended throughout Eng- 

 land, Scotland, and France ; and, so far as can at 

 present be seen, it seems to have pertained equally 

 to these three countries. 



4. Though men of the name of Robin Hood 

 have existed in England, that of itself could afford 

 no ground for inferring that some one of them was 

 the Robin Hood of romantic tradition ; but any 

 pretence for such a supposition is taken away by 

 the strong evidence, both Scotch and French, now 

 adduced in support of the opposite view. H. K. 



SHAKSPEABE AND LIJCIAN BUONAPAKTE. 



During the autumn of 1848 I made an excur- 

 sion to Stratford-upon-Avon, chiefly with a view 

 to inspect a locality made famous by its connexion 

 with the memory of our immortal dramatist. Upon 

 visiting the far-famed house, I perceived a board 

 hanging over the kitchen fire-place, from which I 

 copied the following verses, and the ex^ilanatory 

 notice preceding them; but could obtam no in- 

 formation respecting the person by whose authority 

 it had been there placed. The recent decision of 

 Her Majesty's ministers respecting Shakspeare's 

 house recalled the circumstance to my mind, 

 which I thought not unworthy of being recorded 

 in the pages of " N". & Q." 



" About the year 1810, Lucian Buonaparte, brother 

 of Napoleon, passing through Stratford, visited this 

 house, and inscribed, where this frame now hangs, four 

 lines in honour of the poet. These, the then owner of 

 the house, a silly and capricious person, ordered to be 

 white-washed over. As they are the composition of 

 one of the most distinguished foreigners who have 

 done honour to Shakspeare, a copy of them is here 

 subjoined : 



" The eye of Genius glistens to admire 

 How memory hails the sound of Shakespeare's lyre- 

 One tear I'll shed to form a chrystal shrine 

 For all that's grand, immortal, and divine. 



" L. Buonaparte, Principe di Canino." 

 I would be glad to learn from more recent 

 visitors, whether the board in question still re- 

 mains in the place where I found it in August, 

 1848. T.C.S. 



