Yeoman, Outlaw, Demon: Reading the Friar's Tale as an Outlaw Tale
Abstract
One of the earliest surviving Robin Hood plays, Robin Hood and the Friar, features Robin’s first (and famously confrontational) encounter with Friar Tuck. Having been beaten and robbed by Tuck before the play’s beginning, and after attacking him in retaliation, Robin declares: I had lever mete with the devil of hell, Fryer, I tell the as I thinke, Then mete with a fryer or a fox In a mornyng, or I drynke.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Theater
Performance
and Music History
Shakespeare
Adaptation
and Literary Criticism
Literature: history
themes
analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- Publication date
- 2 January 2026