R. B. Dobson (1931–2013)

This is an exceptionally thorough collection which includes virtually all the standard Robin Hood ballads, from the fifteenth century "Gest of Robin Hood' down through seventeenth and eighteenth century and the "Garland" ballads, followed by Robin Hood poems by Keats and Noyes . More unusually, it includes early brief plays based on Robin Hood and extracts from Anthony Munday's two late sixteenth century plays which did much to establish Robin Hood as the outlawed earl of Huntingdon, as well as from Ben Jonson's "The Sad Shepherd" a Nottingham Robin Hood play put on to celebration the Restoration in 1661, and extracts from Tennyson's late play "The Foresters. It closes with a selection of other outlaw poems --the Song of Trailbaston, Robin and Gamelyn, Adam Bell, the Danish Marsk Stig and even Jesse James. The editors of this volume chose to reproduce specific surviving texts rather than follow Child and others in combining texts to create an ideal version, so these pieces give a more realistic idea of how the Robin Hood literature was seen in its own time. The collection also has a very sensible scholarly introduction and useful appendixes of ballads, the Sloane MS life of Robin Hood (which the editors regard as valueless for historical information) and Robin Hood proverbs and place names. There is also a map of Robin Hood place names in the Sherwood/Barnesdale region.… (more)

4026. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, by R. B. Dobson (read 22 May 2005) This book, published in 1970, is a compilation of contemporary or near contemporary accounts of the Peasants' Revolt. Fortunately most such accounts are in languages other than English so one did not have to wade thru old English very much. The accounts are not too interesting. The revolt lasted a very short time and the repression was less fierce than it might have been. I did not enjoy the book much but I now know more about the event than I did.… (more)