SIR TOPAS deserves a passing notice and I prefer to mention him here. He is made the hero of a burlesque ballad by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. The tale of Sir Topas' is mentioned by Puttenham (cf. ante, p. 156) as forming part of the stock of the Cantabanqui and Minstrels. The name, Sir Topas, is assumed by the clown in Twelfth Night (IV, 11). But 'Sir Tophas' is also in Lyly's Endymion. CHARLEMAGNE ROMANCES. Enormous though the popularity was which these romances enjoyed in the middle ages, the English versions never took very deep root. It is therefore not suprizing to find but few and faint traces of the Charlemagne cycle in Shakespeare's works. In 1. Henry VI., Act I, 11, 29–31, Alençon is made to refer to the two most famous paladins of Charles the Great: Froissart, a countryman of ours, records, During the time Edward the Third did reign. 1 Of the Charlemagne Romances, there is only one with which, we can say, Shakespeare is in some way connected, whether directly or indirectly. This is 'Huon of Bordeaux', which was translated from the French original by Lord Berners, about 1530, who, be it remembered, was also the translator of Froissart's Chronicle. Of the popularity of Huon of Bordeaux in England there is no lack of evidence. We know, too, from some entries in Henslowe's Diary, that the romance had been dramatized and produced on the London stage in 1593 and 1594. From these and other considerations we see that Oberon, who, in the old romance, plays almost as important a rôle as Huon himself, had been naturalized in England long before Shakespeare classicized him for ever, in his Mids. Night's Dream. Apart from the name and the sovereignty in fairy land, Shakespeare's Oberon has in common with his medieval predecessor the circumstance that his kingdom is situated in the far East. Compare, e. g., Mids. N. Dr., II, 1, 68, where Titania asks Oberon: Why art thou here, Come from the farthest steppe of India? 1 The particular passage in Froissart, if any, alluded to here, has not been identified yet. Edited, with an introduction, by Sidney Lee, Early Engl. Text Soc., XL. It is possible, too, that we have an allusion to 'Huon of Bordeaux in Much Ado About Nothing, II, 1, 271 ff., where Benedick declares he would rather fetch a toothpick from the furthest inch of Asia, bring the length of Prester John's foot, fetch a hair off the great Cham's beard, than hold three words' conference with Beatrice. Here there may be a reference to the grotesque task imposed upon Huon who was to go to Babylon and, among other things, to rob the 'Admiral () Gaudis of a handful of hair from his beard and of four of his largest teeth.' FOLK-BALLADS. ROBIN HOOD. William Shakespeare's fondness for Robin Hood, the people's darling, celebrated in so many ballads, is evinced by some striking allusions in his dramas. First, in As You Like It (I, 1, 119) we have a passage which might be set as a fit motto before this exquisite pastoral drama: Oliver: Where will the old duke live? Charles: They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world. 2 Under the greenwood tree Robin Hood and his merry men of the ballads have their abode. Compare As You Like It, II, v, 1: Under the greenwood tree3 Who loves to lie with me, etc. Compare also 'My Robin is to the Greenwood gone' (see post, p. 178). The two most prominent companions of Robin Hood were Little John and Scarlet, referred to by Shakespeare in 'The Merry Wives', I, 1, 177, where Falstaff addresses the red-faced Bardolph as "Scarlet and “John”, and in 2. Henry IV., Act V, III, 107, where Silence sings, "And "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John". This is a line occurring in THE JOLLY PINDER OF WAKEFIELD (Child III, 131) st. 3: 1 Of The King of Fairies', a play referred to by Nash (1589) and Greene (1592), nothing further is known (cf. Fleay, 'Drama', II, 279, 283). I cannot think that Greene's Oberon (in James IV.) is the father of Shakespeare's Oberon. The German translation by Schlegel is wretched: 'da leben sie wie Zigeunervolk . . . . und versaufen sorglos die Zeit wie im goldnen Alter'. The whole line occurs frequently, as a standing phrase, in the R. H. ballads. Compare, e. g., Child III, p. 71, st. 310, 312; p. 72, st. 328; 335; p. 74, st. 377; p. 97, st. 2; 98, st. 23; 113, st. 83; 115a, etc. All this beheard three witty young men, 'Twas Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. The ballad was well known in Shakespeare's days, being quoted from in three contemporary dramas, and mentioned as early as 1557 in the Stationers' Registers. It is therefore extremely probable that this is the ballad which Shakespeare is quoting. 2 2 In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Acts IV & V, we find a band of civil robbers introduced, who "detest such vile base practices" as "outrages on silly women or poor passengers". Of their resemblance to Robin Hood's outlawed company Shakespeare is so fully aware that he puts the following expression into the mouth of one of them: "By the "bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar." This Friar, however, known as Tuck, does no more belong to the popular Robin Hood ballads than Maid Marian (mentioned in 1. Henry IV, Act, III, III, 129) both of whom owe their association with Robin Hood primarily to the May-games and morris dance. 'In the truly popular ballads Friar Tuck is never 'heard of, and in only two even of the broadsides, Robin Hood and "Queen Katherine and Robin Hood's Golden Prize, is he so much as 'named; in both no more than named, and in both in conjunction 'with Maid Marian,' 'who appears elsewhere only in a late and entirely 'insignificant ballad'. (see Child, III, 122 & 43f.)' A NOTE. It is supposed that the following passage in Much Ado (I, 1, 259), Benedick: If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder, and called Adam,contains an allusion to the famous archer Adam Bell, celebrated in a wellknown ballad: 'Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly' (Child, III, 14). But this is by no means self-evident. 1 As to the old tune, comp. Chappell (old ed. 393). 2 It must be admitted, however, that the names Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John are to be found together, in this order, in a later version of R. H. and Queen Katherine 1,2 (Child, III, 202); Compare, too, Child, III, 147, st. 1; III, 132 b, c; III, 171, st. 1. A passage: "No man may compare with Robin Hood, "With Robin Hood's Slathbatch and John a" occurs in a poem in the prose 'History of George a Green' (see Thoms, Early Engl. Prose Rom., 1858, II, 189.-Slathbatch-Scarlet). And who knows whether some lost ballad does not contain the same words quoted by Silence. 3 A Robin Hood motif is introduced into 1. Henry VI., Act II, 1, where Talbot, imprisoned by the Countess of Auvergne, summons his companions by blowing his horn NARRATIVE ART-BALLADS. A SONG OF A BEGGAR AND A KING. (KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-MAID.) 1 This ballad is preserved in 'A Crowne-Garland of Goulden Roses' (1st. ed., 1612) by Richard Johnson, reprinted by the Percy Society, vol. VI. It was repeated by Percy in his Reliques. The ballad of King Cophetua is referred to by Shakespeare on five different occasions: 1) In Love's Lab. Lost, I, 11, Armado, who is "in love with a "base wench", asks Moth: "what great men have been in love?" Moth reminds him of Hercules and Samson. Not content with these authorities he says (1. 114): Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar? Moth: The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since: but I think now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would neither serve for the writing nor the tune. Arm. I will have that subject newly writ o'er, that I may example my digression by some mighty precedent. 2) To the same ballad Armado's long letter (Love's L. L., IV, 1, 60—88) is full of allusions. The beggar-maid is here called Zenelophon. In the ballad, Penelophon. 3) Richard II., Act V, 11, 77: The Duchess (within): Speak with me, pity me, open the door: A beggar begs that never begg'd before. Bolingbroke, the King: Our scene is alter'd from a serious thing, 4) The opening words of the second stanza of the ballad are particularly alluded to in 'Romeo' (II, I, 11f.): Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nick-name for her purblind son and heir, When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid! 5) A fifth allusion is in 2. Henry IV., Act V, 111, 105-6, where Falstaff affectedly says to Pistol: O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof. 1 Also Ballad Soc., Roxb. Ball., vol. VI, pp. 659, 661, both versions. Tennyson, it is almost impertinent to mention this, has written a poem on the same subject. Malone thinks that the words, "The king's a beggar" in All's Well, V, 111, 335, Epilogue, contain 'some allusion to the old tale of The King and the Beggar'. The allusion is, however, not very clear.' THE CONSTANCY OF SUSANNA. The first line: "There dwelt a man in Babylon' and the burden, 'Lady, lady', of this ballad are quoted by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night (II, 11, 84). It was entered on the Stationers' Registers in 1562/3 (Arber, I, 210) under the title: 'the godly and constante wyse [=wife] Susanna.' But we only possess a later copy of it of the reign of James I., to be found in the Roxburghe Collection, I, 602, with the following title: 'An excellent Ballad / Intituled: / The Constancy of Susanna. To an excellent new tune.' The ballad was attributed by Chappell to William Elderton chiefly (as it appears) on the score of identity in the measure and burden with a production of W. E.'s, entitled "The Panges of Love and Lovers Fittes", 1559-60.3 There are, however, four more productions of this sort, three anonymous, and one signed R. M.* In 'Merry Wives', III, 1, 24, Evans, the Welsh parson, sings the first line of the metrical version of the 137th Psalm: "When as I "[loco we] sat in Pabylon." The First Quarto here gives: "There "dwelt a man in Babylon". But the First Quarto is not a reliable authority and the other reading is more in character. It has been supposed, that the words, Mercutio addresses the Nurse with, in 'Romeo', II, iv, 151: "Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, lady, "lady, lady," contain an allusion to the burden referred to above. But this is very doubtful." 1 Ben Jonson refers to the ballad in Ev. Man in his Hum. III, 1: 'rich as 'King Cophetua'. Instead of 'Cophetua', however, of the Folio edition 1616, the Quarto (1601) reads 'Golias'. 2 Ballad Soc., Roxb. Ballads, vol. I, p. 190, where also a note on the date and on other copies of the ballad is given by Chappell. 3 reprinted by the Percy Soc., vol. I, ‘Old Ballads', p. 25. First, the anonymous fragment in A Hande full of pleasant delites (1584), Arber, Engl. Sch. Libr. 3. p. 25. Then, the anonymous composition in "The Trial of Treasure,' pr. 1567 (Dodsley, III, 292); Thirdly, 'A newe Ballade', signed R. M., beginning ( dere Lady Elysabeth' ('belonging apparently to a rather early period of the queen's reign') reprinted in 'Ancient Ballads and Broadsides', Lilly, 1870, p. 30. A fourth example is found in Twenty-five Old Ballads and Songs, from MSS. in the possession of J. Payne Collier, 1869, p. 19. 5 Tyrwhitt, Malone's Var. Ed., XI, p. 395 (Twelfth Night), compares Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady', Act IV, 11,—Compass: “As true it is, lady, lady, in the |