Robin Hood and the Potter

15th century ballad of Robin Hood

Robin Hood and the Potter is a 15th century ballad of Robin Hood. While usually classed with other Robin Hood ballads, it does not appear to have originally been intended to be sung, but rather recited by a minstrel, and thus is closer to a poem. It is one of the very oldest pieces of the surviving Robin Hood legend, with perhaps only Robin Hood and the Monk older than it. It inspired a short play intended for use in May Day games, attested to around 1560. It was later published by Francis James Child as Child ballad #121 in his influential collection of popular ballads in the 1880s. The story of Potter includes some common motifs that would feature in later Robin Hood stories: single combat where victory is not guaranteed; Robin Hood taking a disguise to blend in; an archery competition; and a naive sheriff who enters the greenwood where he is dramatically outwitted by the crafty outlaws who know the forest better. The tone of Potter is more comic than other early Robin Hood stories that were more violent, such as Robin Hood and the Monk or Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. Nobody dies, and the story concludes with the "lowde lawhyng" (loud laughing) of the Sheriff's wife.

The oldest manuscript of Potter surviving is kept in the Cambridge University Library and dates to around 1500, although the poem likely existed before this manuscript. Interpretation of the work is complicated by the execrable orthography and language skills of the writer; he seems to have been "half literate" and includes various likely errors such as repetitions of lines he has already written. His spelling is also heavily inflected by Midlands dialect. Nevertheless, the manuscript is invaluable for giving insight into the state of the Robin Hood legend around 1500.

A play entitled Robin Hood and the Potter and most likely based on the poem was created around 1560, likely for use in May Day festivals, and to conclude with a Morris dance. The play version is shorter than the poem, and rearranges events so that the dramatic duel between Robin and the potter occurs at the end rather than the start. It is found in the Copeland edition of A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode, and includes touches appropriate for a May Game play such as the potter wearing a 'rose garlande' on his head. Robin Hood and the Butcher is so similar to Potter in parts that it is often seen as an adaptation of the story rather than merely being inspired by it.

In the oldest manuscript, the minstrel "breaks the fourth wall" in parts and directly addresses the audience of "yemen" (yeoman). The work itself depicts Robin as a yeoman as well. After the potter defeats Robin, he shames him for his discourtesy in waylaying a fellow yeoman, and Robin even agrees with the criticism and offers the potter safe passage in the future. This aspect is perhaps flattering the intended audience of lesser craftsmen who were outranked by the landed gentry yet nevertheless were socially above the very poorest peasants of English society, by saying that Robin Hood was just like them. This notably contrasts with some stories of much later origin in which Robin would sometimes be a dispossessed nobleman or former knight. The device of Robin disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, and William Wallace. The story is also an early example of a motif seen in other ballads where Robin Hood meets his match, but through his charm either befriends or outright recruits the other fighter regardless. It is seen in works such as Robin Hood and the Tanner and Robin Hood and the Ranger, and is an element of Robin Hood and the Tinker. The work's rhyme scheme is irregular, at least in the oldest version. It sometimes hews to the standard ballad stanza of ABCB, but has other partial rhymes, missing rhymes, or alternate rhymes such as ABAC and ABAB. Robin's friendly relationship with the sheriff's wife is somewhat unusual in the earliest stories of Robin Hood, which generally restricted Robin's interaction with women to the Virgin Mary and the villainous prioress of Kirklees. Maid Marian does not appear in the earliest surviving stories. Potter, by contrast, seems to hint that the sheriff's wife is more than a little charmed by the mysterious potter giving her a gift. The ballad was not directly included in the popular "garlands" of Robin Hood ballads popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. Instead, the similar Robin Hood and the Butcher version of the story was generally included. Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren praised the work for its "quick moving and highly effective" plot and solid sense of irony and humor. They also admired the ballad as setting up Robin Hood's social and mythic status as someone leading a band of near equals with wit and bravery, against the new order forming in the cities. While a simple and comic tale, they remark that this simplicity is also what made the tale capable of easy spread and many retellings.