Tag: poem

Sir William ‘Robin Hood’ Harcourt: Edwin J. Milliken’s ‘Bold Robin Hood: A Fytte of Foreste Finaunce’ in “Punch” (1894) | Stephen Basdeo

This article examines Punch’s 1894 poem ‘Bold Robin Hood’, which recast Sir William Harcourt’s Budget as fiscal outlawry. Rather than celebrating Robin Hood’s moral economy, Edwin James Milliken’s satire made redistributive taxation appear as cant, coercion, and highway robbery in defence of property and middle-class respectability.

Zé Maria da Fortaleza’s “Adventures of Robin Hood” (2007): A Brazilian Outlaw Poem| Stephen Basdeo [Trans.]

Zé Maria da Fortaleza’s Adventures of Robin Hood (2007) retells the outlaw legend in Brazilian cordel verse. Robin becomes leader of a woodland brotherhood resisting injustice, defeats the Sheriff through disguise and skill, wins Marian’s love, and is ultimately vindicated by King Richard, blending English folklore with Brazilian popular tradition.

Lawrence Price (fl. 1624–67): The Forgotten Anti-Catholic Author of “Robin Hood’s Golden Prize” (1631) | Stephen Basdeo

This article examines how the Robin Hood tradition was reshaped in the seventeenth century to express explicit anti-Catholic sentiment. Focusing on Robin Hood’s Golden Prize (1631) by the prolific broadside writer Laurence Price, earlier medieval critiques of corrupt churchmen were transformed after the Reformation into polemic aimed at Catholic priests.

Joseph Frank (1770–1842): Editor of Joseph Ritson’s “Robin Hood: A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads” (1795) | Stephen Basdeo

Joseph Ritson (1752-1803), a conveyancer and passionate literary critic, significantly impacted the study of the Robin Hood legend with his 1795 work, “Robin Hood: A Collection of all the Ancient Poems.” His nephew, Joseph Frank, later edited Ritson’s works, updating and adapting them for contemporary audiences while preserving their scholarly essence.

To the Man Who Betrayed a Woman to her Foes (1832) | Victor Hugo

The Political notions of the poet must not be judged by this Song. In condemning the conduct of an individual, who betrayed a woman to her enemies, he does not vituperate the subsequent measures which were necessarily adopted with regard to that noble personage: he simply anathematizes the name of a wretch, whose heart, devoid of all kind feelings of gratitude—of respect—and of pity, was corrupted by gold, and rendered subservient to the designs of his employers.