John Winstanley’s "An Invitation to Robin Hood" and "Robin Hood’s Answer" (1742)
Stephen Basdeo
Leeds Trinity University
1408016@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Rosemary Mitchell argues that during the
eighteenth century, artists and writers when representing the medieval period
did not strive for historical authenticity but instead sought to present a
neoclassical or Shakespearean view of the past.[1]
Classical imagery is present in some literary representations of Robin Hood
from the eighteenth century. In a previous post for this website, it was
pointed out that Joseph Addison (1672-1719) thought that Robin Hood was equal
to classical heroes such as Achilles and Caesar.[2]
The “classicisation” of Robin Hood is even stronger in two
mid-eighteenth-century poems entitled “An Invitation to Robin Hood” and “Robin Hood’s Answer” (1742).
These two Robin Hood poems appeared in John
Winstanley’s Poems Written Occasionally,
Interspersed with Many Others by Several Ingenious Hands (1742). Winstanley
(c.1677-1750) was born in Ireland, but he is a minor figure in the
eighteenth-century literary world, and virtually nothing is known of his life.[3]
However, there is a good chance that the poems were not written by Winstanley,
as the subtitle indicates that several writers contributed to the volume. His
collection should therefore be viewed as one of the many poetic miscellanies
that were published throughout the period. As Robin Hood scholars are unlikely
to have come across this poem before, it is transcribed below in full. The
original spelling, italicisation, and capitalisation of each word in the
original book are retained, with the exception of long s [∫].
“An Invitation to Robin Hood”
SIR, Thursday next, the Archers dine,
On Round of beef, if not Sir Loin;
Though Round suits best, at B—r’s House,
A Glass to
drink, and to carouse,
And is, to Marks-men, you’ll allow,
For each his
Arrow, and his Bow,
Much fitter
to determine Lots;
The Center
shewing nearest Shots:
The Day
then, Sir, to celebrate,
And crown
each Archer’s lucky Fate,
The Muse
your Company bespeaks,
To shoot, at
least, for Ale and Cakes;
And, Sir,
whoever wins the Prize,
To do him
Justice to the Skies.
“Robin Hood’s Answer”
Untouch’d by
Phoebus’ scorching Rays,
And his
poetick Fire,
Victorious
Laurel, not the Bays,
Is all my
Soul’s Desire.
Soon will
the rash Apollo know,
The Danger
of inviting,
An Archer armed with his Bow,
And
Impliments for fighting.
The Round of Beef with all it’s [sic]
Charms,
Will small
Protection yield,
Against an Archer’s conquering Arms,
Tho’ turn’d
into a shield.
His Butt he’ll make it, which shall feel,
The Marks of
his Disdain,
His Arrows
tipt with Blades of Steel,
Shall pierce
thro’ ev’ry Vein.
The Vict’ry
gain’d, he scorns to boast,
For gen’rous
Deeds renown’d;
Then to the Round around we’ll toast
‘Till all
the World turns round.
Thus writeth
in a merry mood,
Your humble
Servant Robin Hood.[4]
Commentary
The classical imagery in the poem
is self-evident: Apollo (also known as Phoebus), is the Greek god of music,
poetry, art, and archery, and he is holding a feast for all legendary archers.
The feast will feature an archery contest in which all of the bowmen will test
their skills. Winstanley will also be in attendance. He desires Robin Hood to be
present, so Winstanley writes him an invitation. Robin responds that he will
attend, but he will come to win the contest, outshining even Apollo himself.
After Robin has won the contest, he will then feast with the rest of the
archers.
There are several reasons why neoclassicism
became prevalent in art, literature, and architecture in Britain during the
eighteenth century. Joseph M. Levine argues that it was the result of several
factors: antiquity was viewed as a “refined,” “polished,” and “civilized” age
in which men enjoyed political liberty. This was perfect for England’s polite
and commercial elites who viewed themselves as the vanguard of civilisation and
liberty.[5]
Moreover, classicism was linked to ideals of heroism during the eighteenth
century.[6]
Winstanley and even the “Augustan” Addison believed that Robin was a hero, one who
surpassed even Apollo in his skill and bravery.
In general, the ancient Greeks
did not consume great quantities of meat. The references to beef, in contrast
to the classical imagery present in the play, lend an air of Englishness to the
poems. Perhaps this is Winstanley’s attempt to provide continuity with earlier
Robin Hood texts. The outlaws in both the medieval and post-medieval tradition
are frequently seen feasting. Feasting occurs in the first and seventh ‘fyttes’
of A Gest of Robyn Hode, and
illustrates the truth, honor, and fellowship of the outlaws’ society.[7]
Admittedly, it is venison that the outlaws eat in earlier Robin Hood texts. The
consumption of beef in Winstanley’s connects the recurrent motif of feasting in
the Robin Hood tradition with eighteenth-century British patriotism. During the
eighteenth century in which Britain was involved in many wars and a number of
these were fought either directly or indirectly against France, beef became a
patriotic symbol.[8]
It was assumed that the beef fed to English soldiers made them hardy and
strong, in contrast to the slim and underfed continental soldiers.[9]
The image of the strong Englishman fed on a diet of beef appeared numerous
times in contemporary popular culture. In Henry Fielding’s very popular play The Grub Street Opera (1731) contained a
patriotic ballad entitled The Roast Beef
of Old England. The same theme that was taken up by William Hogarth in an
eponymous painting completed in 1748. Fielding’s song was soon set to music and
became a military anthem. Later in the century, especially during the
Napoleonic Wars, the portly/stocky John Bull, one of England’s national
symbols, was often depicted as gorging himself on beef.[10]
Why Winstanley chose to
author this poem is unclear. As so little is known of his life, his reasons can
only be speculated at. Perhaps he had grown up reading a version of the
frequently reprinted eighteenth-century ballad collections known as Robin Hood’s Garland or The English Archer. As a whole,
Winstanley’s book appears to have received a favorable reception from some
major eighteenth-century cultural figures, such as Jonathan Swift, Colley
Cibber, and Alexander Pope.[11]
Miscellany collections of poetry, such as Winstanley’s volume, were extremely
popular during the eighteenth century. They were not published in order to
create a canon of poetic taste but instead were published to provide a snapshot
of the popular literary tastes of the moment.[12]
And this is why their content is often diverse, explaining why the text of a
cheap seventeenth-century broadside ballad such as A Ballad of Bold Robin Hood, Shewing his Birth, Breeding, and Valour
(which also features a Christmastime feast on beef) appears alongside poetry
written by John Dryden in the same volume.[13]
In conclusion, R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor were
quite dismissive of texts from this period, and they included one
eighteenth-century Robin Hood ballad in their anthology, for instance, only to
illustrate what in their words was “the imaginative poverty as well as
stylistic debasement that overtook the legend of the greenwood during the
course of the eighteenth century.”[14]
Similarly, while Stephen Knight’s research is substantial concerning earlier
texts and post nineteenth-century sources, there is still a relative neglect of
eighteenth-century works in all three of his monographs. Thus Robin Hood’s
appearance in eighteenth-century texts certainly is an area which requires more
research.
[1] Rosemary Mitchell, Picturing the Past: English History in Text and Image, 1830-1870
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 9.
[2] Stephen Basdeo, “If They Must Have a British
Worthy, They Would Have Robin Hood.” Robin
Hood Scholars: IARHS on the Web - The Web Presence of the International
Association for Robin Hood Studies, accessed August 12, 2016, http://robinhoodscholars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/notes-from-greenwood-if-they-must-have.html.
[3] Bryan Coleborne, "Winstanley, John
(1677?–1750)" in The Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29758.
[4] John Winstanley, Poems Written Occasionally, Interspersed with Many Others by Several
Ingenious Hands (London, 1742), 210-212.
https://archive.org/details/poemswrittenocc00winsgoog.
[5] See Joseph M. Levine, “Why Neoclassicism?
Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 25, no. 1 (2002): 75-101; and
Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial
People: England 1727-1783 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
[6] See A. D. S. Smith, “Patriotism and New-Classicism:
The 'Historical Revival' in French and English Painting and Sculpture,
1746-1800.” PhD diss., University of London, 1987.
[7] Douglas Gray, “The Robin Hood Poems,” in Robin Hood: Anthology of Scholarship and
Criticism, ed. Stephen Knight (Cambridge: Brewer, 1999), 3-37 at 26-27. See also Stephen Knight, "Feasts in the Forest," in Telling Tales and Crafting Books: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren, eds. Alexander L. Kaufman, Shaun F. D. Hughes, and Dorsey Armstrong. Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures XXIV (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2016), 161-75.
[8] For example, the wars that Britain fought
either directly or indirectly against France include The Great Northern War
(1700-1721), The War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the Jacobite Rebellion
(1715), Drummer’s War (1721-25), The War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748),
The Second Carnatic War (1749-1754), The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), The War
of American Independence (1776-1783), and the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815).
[9] Hannah Velton, Cow (London: Reaktion Books, 2007), 132-133.
[10] See Mark Bryant, The Napoleonic Wars in Cartoons (London: Grub Street Publishing,
2009).
[11] John Winstanley, Poems Written Occasionally, xv-xxv.
[12] “Miscellanies and Eighteenth-Century Print
Culture.” Digital Miscellanies Index,
accessed August 13, 2016, http://digitalmiscellaniesindex.org/about/miscellanies.php.
[13] ”A Ballad of Bold Robin Hood, Shewing his
Birth, Breeding, and Valour,” in The
Sixth Part of Miscellany Poems, Containing a Variety of New Translations of the
Ancient Poets, Together with Several Original Poems by the Most Eminent Hands.
Publish’d by Mr. Dryden (London: J. Tonson, 1716), 346-352.
[14] R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, eds., Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the
English Outlaw, 3rd ed. (Stroud: Sutton, 1997), 183.
Image Credits: Frontispiece to John
Winstanley’s Poems Written Occasionally
(Dublin: Powell, 1742). Digitised by University of Michigan and Made Available
via The Internet Archive.
