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Author
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Comment
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aka
Greensleeves
Registered User
(5/31/05 11:16 am)
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Robin Hood and...Cicely?
My knowledge of Robin Hood is very basic, and I'm hoping someone
can help me out here. Is there a woman named Cicely traditionally
connected to RH and his band? A character with the name appears
in two RH retellings I've read (as a significant player in McKinley's
OUTLAWS
OF SHERWOOD, and as a so-far minor character in Elsa Watson's
MAID
MARIAN). Is she traditional, or is this a coincidence (Cicely
is a rather *specific* name)?
Thanks!
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Drawkn
Unregistered User
(6/1/05 11:18 am)
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cicely
hmmm
I have read it many times over, but not recently. I remember no character by that name however.
Interesting.
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sagana
thas me
Registered User
(6/1/05 5:02 pm)
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Re: cicely
The early Robin Hood ballads and tales have very little in the way of specific information and much of what forms our idea of the archetype doesn't exist (for example, the king mentioned is Edward and only briefly, there's no Maid Marion - there's an early May Day play called "Robin and Marion" but it's not clearly about Robin Hood, Robin is a yeoman rather than a knight or nobleman, and his primary antagonists are the sherrif and clergy (abbots) protecting knights and others alike (not rich against poor) etc.) but lots was added later. There's a Cicely mentioned in this mid-1800s piece:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/southey.htm
As Robin there seems to be identified with Loxely and a disposessed noble, I'd expect that aspect of the story came into vogue somewhere around that period.
Hope that helps
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chirons
daughter
Registered User
(6/7/05 8:02 pm)
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Re: cicely
What you describe sounds like the little trouvere play by Adam de la Halle, the "Jeu de Robin et Marion." It isn't Robin Hood. A passing chevalier seduces a shepherdess away from her rustic lover Robin, and Robin contrives to get her back. It does have the elements of arrogant advantage taking on the part of the nobility, and commoners' ingenuity to give them a comeuppance.
Perhaps it is related in some way, but I don't think directly. Certainly the general thematic resemblance is there, of the dawn of commoner's "rights".
Edited by: chirons daughter at: 6/7/05 8:08 pm
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