The Noble Fisherman
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''The Noble Fisherman'', also known as ''Robin Hood's Preferment'' and ''Robin Hood's Fishing'', is a 17th-century
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
of Robin Hood. Unusually, it depicts Robin Hood as a hero of the sea, rather than his usual portrayal as someone who operated in the greenwood forest. It seems to have been quite popular for the first two centuries of its existence, although it eventually lost prominence and was less used in adaptations of Robin Hood from the 19th and 20th centuries. It was later published by
Francis James Child Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of r ...
in the 1880s as
Child Ballad The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
#148 in his influential collection of popular ballads.
Robin Hood's Bay Robin Hood's Bay is a small Yorkshire coast fishery, fishing village and a bay located in the North York Moors National Park, south of Whitby and north of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough on the coast of North Yorkshire, England. Ba ...
in the
Borough of Scarborough The Borough of Scarborough () is a non-metropolitan district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. In addition to the town of Scarborough, it covers a large stretch of the coast of Yorkshire, including Whitby and Filey. It borders Redc ...
may have been an inspiration for the writer of the ballad.


Plot

Robin Hood decides to go to sea and try his hand at being a
fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...
. He poses as a poor fisherman and calls himself Simon Over-The-Lee. In
Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town in the Borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. Scarborough is located on the North Sea coastline. Historic counties of England, Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 ...
, he meets a widow with an inn by the sea and her own boat. She hires him and hopes that he will live up to his namesake ( Simon Peter, a fisherman). The ship's Master initially is unimpressed with the new hire. The crew laughs at him as an obvious " lubber" whose
seamanship Seamanship is the art, knowledge and competence of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topics a ...
is at novice level. "Simon" spies a French warship, presumably either
pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
or
privateers A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
. While the Master initially despairs at the prospect of being taken into French captivity, Simon insists he be allowed to defend the ship with his bow. Simon shoots the French pirates using his archery skills. Instead of the French boarding the fishing boat, the fishermen board the French ship, where everyone is already dead from Simon's arrows. They find a treasure hoard of twelve thousand pounds aboard the French warship. Initially, Simon says he will take half for his "dame" (the widow who hired him, as she is called a dame earlier) and offers to share the other half of the treasure with the others on the boat. The Master refuses and insists that the treasure is all Robin's. Robin vows to use it to build a habitation for the oppressed where they can live in peace.


Analysis

A ballad titled "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hoods great Prize" is listed in the ''
Stationers' Register The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including print ...
'' as from June 1631, and was presumably this ballad. The oldest surviving copy is also probably from the 1630s, now kept in the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
collection. Many late 17th-century
broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...
copies exist and the ballad was commonly included in the garlands (collections) of Robin Hood ballads of the 17th and 18th centuries, suggesting the work's popularity. The ballad's writing style suggests it was written by a professional ballad writer inventing a tale that combined England's famous hero with the then popular genre of stories involving a victory over a hated foreign enemy in the French, making it unlikely the tale originated from an older medieval popular tradition, and certainly not an actual historical incident. The ballad is also unusual in placing Robin Hood in Scarborough, which also probably reflects its later date of composition; the earliest legends kept Robin Hood firmly within a Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire forest. In the alternate broadside title of ''Robin Hood's Preferment'', "Preferment" loosely implies "professional advancement" as Robin is doing something new. The story may have been influenced or partially inspired by tales of Eustace the Monk, another medieval outlaw who had nautical adventures. Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren consider the structure of the story as being similar to ''
Robin Hood and the Potter Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood. The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake. Synopsis Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
'', with the widow replacing the role of the sheriff's wife in ''Potter''. Like many ballads of Robin Hood, the work adopts a rhyme scheme of ABCB that rhymes the second and fourth line of each stanza, also known as a ballad stanza. The setup to the story depicts Robin Hood as considering fishing a potentially well-paying job. This may be wishful thinking from the ballad's writer who clearly admired sailors, as "outlaw" was a very lucrative trade provided they did not get caught, hence why people considered it at all. Even if Robin Hood had wished to try going legitimate, a good archer in medieval armies could earn twice as much as a medieval sailor. The tune of the ballad, identified by its opening line "In summer time, when leaves grow green", is the same as one broadsheet version of '' Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar'', as well as ''
Robin Hood and the Tinker Robin Hood and the Tinker is Child Ballads, Child Ballad 127. Synopsis Robin Hood meets with a tinker and tells him that two tinkers were put in the stocks for drinking ale and beer. The tinker tells him that he has a warrant for Robin Hood in h ...
''. Similar opening lines about the forest in the summer, if not necessarily the same tune, occur in ''
Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood. Original work and later publications The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
'', ''
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood legend. This ballad survives in a si ...
'', and ''
Robin Hood and the Potter Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood. The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake. Synopsis Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
''. While the work was quite popular for a solid two centuries, it declined in prominence afterward. James Holt contemptuously wrote that the story was a "trivial romance", a "passing fancy", and "had very little permanent impact on the legend." Francis Child called the ballad somewhat "infantile" by his era's standards, but acknowledged that it clearly found an audience during its time.


See also

* List of the Child Ballads


References


External links


"Robin Hood's Fishing"
a combination of the two earliest versions *, Child's version
The Noble Fisher-Man
a version compiled by John Mathew Gutch {{DEFAULTSORT:Noble Fisherman Robin Hood ballads Child Ballads Medieval pirates Songs about pirates 1631 songs Scarborough, North Yorkshire