Matter of the Greenwood Document
The Forresters Manuscript (British Library Add MS 71158)
- Summary
- A quarto book of 21 Robin Hood ballads in 22 texts (The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield appears twice), written in the 1670s, unknown for over three centuries until it surfaced at auction in 1993 - found by the Bristol bookseller A. R. Heath, sold through Bernard Quaritch, and now British Library Additional MS 71158. The most important Robin Hood manuscript discovery since the Percy Folio. All 21 ballads were already known from broadsides and garlands, but 13 differ noticeably from those versions, 9 of them substantially longer, and 4 are the earliest known texts of their ballad. Knight and Ohlgren adopt Forresters readings as the best text for several. The radically variant texts of Robin Hood and Allin a Dale, Robin Hood and the Bishop, and The King's Disguise and Friendship with Robin Hood are the standouts, the last two predating any other witness by some seventy years. Also present: Robin Hood and Queen Katherine, The Noble Fisherman.
- Date
- manuscript c. 1670s; surfaced at auction 1993; edited by Kelliher and Knight 1998
- Note
- Knight's 1998 edition is not held locally and will not be acquired (decision, 2026-09-01). Work from the web-accessible descriptions recorded here, and from the Forresters readings that Knight and Ohlgren carry into the TEAMS edition, which IS held locally.
- Where scholars disagree
- The 21-versus-22 count is not a disagreement but a counting convention: 21 distinct ballads, 22 texts, because the Jolly Pinder is copied twice. Ted's teaching materials say 22 and are counting texts; Wikipedia and the Speculum review say 21 and are counting ballads. Both are right.
Worldviews
The Ballad Outlaw, Ritson's Radical
Provenance
- Source method
- Web research (Wikipedia, Boydell & Brewer, Speculum review notice, International Robin Hood Bibliography)
- Review status
- DRAFT
- Confidence
- HIGH