Didbin, _The Waterman_, i. (1774).

_Robin_ (_Old_), butler to old Mr. Ralph Morton, of Milnwood.--Sir W.
Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Robin Bluestring.= Sir Robert Walpole was so called, in allusion to his
blue ribbon as a knight of the garter (1676-1745).

=Robin des Bois.= Mysterious rover of the woods in _Freisch[:u]tz_, also
in Eug[`e]ne Sue's novels--"a bug-a-boo!"

=Robin Gray= (_Auld_). The words of this song are by Lady Anne Lindsay,
daughter of the earl of Balcarres; she was afterwards Lady Barnard. The
song was written, in 1772, to an old Scotch tune called _The Bridegroom
Grat when the Sun gaed Down_. (See GRAY.)

=Robin Hood= was born at Locksley, in Notts., in the reign of Henry II.
(1160). His real name was Fitzooth, and it is commonly said that he was
the earl of Huntingdon. Having outrun his fortune, and being outlawed,
he lived as a freebooter in Barnsdale (Yorkshire), Sherwood (Notts.),
and Plompton Park (Cumberland). His chief companions were Little John
(whose name was _Nailor_), William Scadlock (or _Scarlet_), George
Green, the pinder (or pound-keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a miller's son,
and Tuck, a friar, with one woman, Maid Marian. His company at one time
consisted of a hundred archers. He was bled to death in his old age by
his sister, the Prioress of Kirkley's Nunnery, in Yorkshire, November
18, 1247, aged 87 years.

[Asterism] An excellent sketch of Robin Hood is given by Drayton in his
_Polyolbion_, xxvi. Sir W. Scott introduces him in two novels--_Ivanhoe_
and _The Talisman_. In the former he first appears as Locksley, the
archer, at the tournament. He is also called "Dickon Bend-the-Bow."

The following dramatic pieces have the famous outlaw for the hero:
_Robin Hood_, i. (1597), Munday; _Robin Hood_, ii. (1598), Chettle;
_Robin Hood_ (1741), an opera, by Dr. Arne and Burney; _Robin Hood_
(1787), an opera by O'Keefe, music by Shield; _Robin Hood_, by Macnally
(before 1820).

Major tells us that this famous robber took away the goods of rich men
only; never killed any person except in self-defence; never plundered
the poor, but charitably fed them; and adds, "he was the most humane and
the prince of all robbers."--_Britanniae Historia_, 128 (1740).

The abbot of St. Mary's, in York, and the sheriff at Nottingham were his
_b[^e]t[^e]s noires_. Munday and Chettle wrote a popular play in 1601,
entitled _The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington_.

_Epitaph of