Bold Robing- Hicks (NC) 1940 Brown
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore Vol. 2, 1952 and Vol. 4. Their notes follow. This is from Nora Hicks, who is Mrs. Calvin Hicks. Her daughter Addie Mae wrote this out for Edith Walker. A copy of this is in Abrams Collection.
Nora Hicks version probably came from Fanny Hicks, her grandmother. This would be from the Hicks/Harmon line which can be traced to David Hicks who came to Watauga County with his son Big Sammy before the Revolution. David's father Samuel was born in Virginia c. 1695 and lived on Tuckahoe Creek on the James River in Goochland County before moving to NC in his later years (c. 1750s). This is likely an ancient version.
Reprinted as "Bold Robin Hood" by Richard Chase in American Folk Tales and Songs, 1956.
R. Matteson 2015]
33. Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires (Child 140)
This is one of the few Robin Hood ballads that are still alive in tradition. Greig found it in Scotland (LL 98-100), and it has been reported from Hampshire (JFSS in 268-9) and by Barry from Maine (BBM 240-2, with a helpful note). It has not heretofore been found in the Southern states. The North Carolina text is a form of Child's C version, found in a number of eighteenth-century garlands, but the last line of stanza 7 looks back to Child's B version, stanza 15:
'By the truth of my body,' bold Robin can say,
'This man loved little pride.'
The last two lines of stanza 3 sound like a confused memory of the corresponding lines in C:
'Or do you weep for your maidenhead.
That is taken from your body?'
The text, which comes to the editor in four slightly variant forms besides one phonograph recording, has one origin : the singing of Mrs. Calvin Hicks of Mast's Gap, Watauga county. The last day of September, 1940, Dr. Brown, Professor Abrams, and Miss Edith Walker of Boone, who seems to have been the discoverer of Mrs. Hicks as a singer of old ballads, went to Mast's Gap and got Mrs. Hicks to sing this among other ballads that she knew. A recording was made from her singing. It corresponds pretty closely with the text given below except that it lacks stanzas 3-5. The verbal peculiarities of stanzas 5, 7, 10, and 11 appear also in the record. Later in the day one of Mrs. Hicks's daughters wrote out the complete text for Miss Walker, and at the same time (or perhaps later) Professor Abranis secured a copy of the text. A month later Dr. Brown received in an envelope postmarked Sugar Grove (which is the post office for Mast's Gap) the penciled manuscript of our text. It is unsigned, but its close accordance with the texts secured by Miss Walker and Professor Abrams and with Dr. Brown's record so far as that record goes leaves no doubt that it, too, comes from Mrs. Hicks — or, more likely, from one of her daughters, as did Miss Walker's[1] and Professor Abrams [2].
A. 'Bold Robing.' A penciled manuscript from Sugar Grove received in October 1940; unsigned, but quite certainly representing the ballad as sung by Mrs. Calvin Hicks of Mast's Gap, Watauga county. See above. Followed here verbatim et literatim, except for the line division and the pointing, which are editorial.
1 Bold Robing hood one morning he stood
With his back against a tree.
And he was the war of a fine young man,
As fine as fine could be.
2 Bold Robing hood put out to Nouttongain town
As fast as he could ride,
And who should he meet but a poor old woman
As she came weeping by.
3 'Are you weeping for my gold[3]?' he said,
'Or are you weeping for my store?
Or are you weeping for your three heads"[4]
Been taking from your Bodye?'
4 'I'm not weeping for your gold,' she said,
'Nor neather for your store;
I am just a-weeping for my three sons
That has to be hung today.'
5 Bold Robing put [5] on to Nouttongain town
As fast as he could ride;
But who should he meet but a poor old boobager [6]
As he came walking by.
6 'Change clothing, change clothing,' Bold Robing he said,
'Pray change your clothing with me.
Hear is 40 bright guinnes I'll give you to boot
If you will change your clothing with me,'
7 Bold Robing put on the boobegars coat [7]
It was patched on every side good.
'Faith to my soul,'[8] bold Robing he said,
'They'll think I'll [9] just wear this for pride.'
8 Bold Robing put on [10] to Nouttongain town
As fast as he could ride;
But who should he see but the old town Sheriff
As he stood there close by.
9 'Which way, which way,' the old town Sheriff said,
'Which way, I say [11] to thee?'
'I heard there was three sons to be hung here today, [12]
And the hangman I want for to be.'
10 'Quick granted, quick granted,' the old town Sheriff said,
'Quick granted I say to three. [13]
And you can have all their gay goo [14] clothing
And all their bright money '
11 'It's I want none of their gay goo[14] clothing
Or none of their bright money.
I want three blast from my bugle horn
As happy as soldiers [15] can be.'
12 He wund his horn unto his mouth
And he lowed blasted. [16]
Five [17] hundred and ten of Bold Robins men come,
Came marching all up in a row.
13 'Whose men, whose men,' the old town Sheriff said,
'Whose men, I pray to thee?'
'They are brave men of mine,' Bold Robing he said,
'Come to borrow three sons[18] from thee!'
14 'Oh take them! oh take them!' the old town Sheriff said,
'Oh take them, I pray to thee!
No lord nor knight, nor no Christendome, [19]
Can borrow three more from me.'
Footnotes:
1. Miss Walker's first copy of the text was given her by a daughter of Mrs. Hicks, as related above. This text was communicated to me by Professor Hudson. More recently (September 19, 1948) Miss Walker has sent me another copy, written out — if I understand Miss Walker's letter correctly — by Mrs. Hicks herself. This second text differs slightly here and there from the first. The chief variants are given in footnotes.
2. Professor Abrams tells me that he has not been able to find his original copy of the text but has sent me a copy of the text as it is in a recording he has made. It is somewhat more literate than the penciled text in the Brown Collection but is clearly the same version.
3. Abrams and Walker (1) have here "go."
4. Walker (1) has here "your three sons's heads"; Abrams has simply "your three sons."
5. Walker (1) has "put out"; Abrams has "went down"; Walker (2) has "went on."
6. 'So also Walker (1) and Walker (2); Abrams has simply "a poor, old beggar." "Boobager" looks like a corruption of "bullbeggar," a bogie.
7. So also Walker (1) and Walker (2) ; Abrams has "the old beggars coat."
8. The Abrams and both the Walker texts have "good faith to my soul.
9. So also Walker (1) ; Abrams has "I" instead of "I'll"; Walker (2) has "they will say."
10. Walker (1) has "out" instead of "on"; Abrams has "went down'; Walker (2) has "went on."
11. Both Miss Walker's texts have "pray" instead of "say."
12. Walker (1) has "I heard three men was to be hung here today": Abrams has "I heard of three men to be hung here today"; Walker (2) has "I heard three men was to be hung here today."
13. The "three" here is merely a slip of the pencil; all the other texts have "thee."
14. So also Walker (2); in the other texts it is normalized to good.
15. So also Walker (2); Walker (1) and Abrams have "a soldier."
16. "Walker (1) and Walker (2) have "he lowed blasted Mowed"; Abrams has "he loud blasts did blow."
17. So also Walker (1) and Abrams; Walker (2) has "one hundred" instead of "five hundred."
18. So also Walker (1) and Abrams; Walker (2) has "three men."
19. Walker (1) has "christes sone"; Abrams, "brave men of yourn"; Walker (2), "brave men of yours."
------------------------------------
33 Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [music]
(Child 140)
'Bold Robing.' Sung by Mrs. Calvin Hicks, of Mast's Gap, Watauga county. Recorded, but no date or place given. There is a second recording, the melodic deviations of which are given in the variations below.
For melodic relationship cf. **TBV 592, No. 40C ('The House Carpenter').
Scale: Hexachordal. Tonal Center: c. Structure: aba2c (2,2,2,2) =2 ab (4,4).