What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtle flame,
As if that any one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And has resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.
NOTES ON LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN.
PAGE 131. l. 10. _bold Robin Hood._ Cf. _Robin Hood_, p. 133.
l. 12. _bowse_, drink.
PAGE 132. ll. 16-17. _an astrologer's . . . story._ The astrologer would record, on parchment, what he had seen in the heavens.
l. 22. _The Mermaid . . . Zodiac._ The zodiac was an imaginary belt across the heavens within which the sun and planets were supposed to move. It was divided into twelve parts corresponding to the twelve months of the year, according to the position of the moon when full. Each of these parts had a sign by which it was known, and the sign of the tenth was a fish-tailed goat, to which Keats refers as the Mermaid. The word _zodiac_ comes from the Greek +zōdion+, meaning
a little animal, since originally all the signs were animals.
INTRODUCTION TO ROBIN HOOD.
Early in 1818 John Hamilton Reynolds, a friend of Keats, sent him two sonnets which he had written 'On Robin Hood'. Keats, in his letter of thanks, after giving an appreciation of Reynolds's production, says: 'In return for your Dish of Filberts, I have gathered a few Catkins, I hope they'll look pretty.' Then follow these lines, entitled, 'To J. H. R. in answer to his Robin Hood sonnets.' At the end he writes: 'I hope you will like them--they are at least written in the spirit of outlawry.'
Robin Hood, the outlaw, was a popular hero of the Middle Ages. He was a great poacher of deer, brave, chivalrous, generous, full of fun, and absolutely without respect for law and order. He robbed the rich to give to the poor, and waged ceaseless war against the wealthy prelates of the church. Indeed, of his endless practical jokes, the majority were played upon sheriffs and bishops. He lived, with his 'merry men', in Sherwood Forest, where a hollow tree, said to be his 'larder', is still shown.
Innumerable ballads telling of his exploits were composed, the first reference to which is in the second edition of Langland's _Piers Plowman_, c. 1377. Many of these ballads still survive, but in all these traditions it is quite impossible to disentangle fact from fiction.
NOTES ON ROBIN HOOD.
PAGE 133. l. 4. _pall._ Cf. _Isabella_, l. 268.
l. 9. _fleeces_, the leaves of the forest, cut from them by the wind as the wool is shorn from the sheep's back.
PAGE 134. l. 13. _ivory shrill_, the shrill sound of the ivory horn.
ll. 15-18. Keats imagines some man who has not heard the laugh hearing with bewilderment its echo in the depths of the forest.
l. 21. _seven stars_, Charles's Wain or the Big Bear.
l. 22. _polar ray_, the light of the Pole, or North, star.
l. 30. _pasture Trent_, the fields about the Trent, the river of Nottingham, which runs by Sherwood forest.
PAGE 135. l. 33. _morris._ A dance in costume which, in the Tudor period, formed a part of every village festivity. It was generally danced by five men and a boy in girl's dress, who represented Maid Marian. Later it came to be associated with the May games, and other characters of the Robin Hood epic were introduced. It was abolished, with other village gaieties, by the Puritans, and though at the Restoration it was revived it never regained its former importance.
l. 34. _Gamelyn._ The hero of a tale (_The Tale of Gamelyn_) attributed to Chaucer, and given in some MSS. as _The Cook's Tale_ in _The Canterbury Tales_. The story of Orlando's ill-usage, prowess, and banishment, in _As You Like It_, Shakespeare derived from this source, and Keats is thinking of the merry life of the hero amongst the outlaws.
l. 36. '_grenč shawe_,' green wood.
PAGE 136. l. 53. _Lincoln green._ In the Middle Ages Lincoln was very famous for dyeing green cloth, and this green cloth was the characteristic garb of the
