-
Important news
-
News
-
Shenzhen
-
China
-
World
-
Opinion
-
Sports
-
Kaleidoscope
-
Photos
-
Business
-
Markets
-
Business/Markets
-
World Economy
-
Speak Shenzhen
-
Leisure
-
Culture
-
Travel
-
Entertainment
-
Digital Paper
-
In-Depth
-
Weekend
-
Newsmaker
-
Lifestyle
-
Diversions
-
Movies
-
Hotels and Food
-
Special Report
-
Yes Teens!
-
News Picks
-
Tech and Science
-
Glamour
-
Campus
-
Budding Writers
-
Fun
-
Qianhai
-
Advertorial
-
CHTF Special
-
Futian Today
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
Robin Hood
    2020-12-14  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet

In the second tier of literature, after the big stories like “King Arthur” and “Romeo and Juliet,” we find characters like Robin Hood.

The milieu is the 12th century, during the reign of King Richard I “the Lionheart” of England, but the tales date to a few centuries later. They say that Richard was away on the Third Crusade (1189-1192), so his brother Prince John tried to usurp his lands. This is where the fiction starts: Richard spent most of his adult life in the southwest of France, and in his entire reign (1189-1199), spent less than six months in England. It’s even doubted that he could speak English! (Note that some of the better-known elements of the stories are later accretions to the original ballads.)

Anyway, the prince makes a handy villain, since, as Richard’s successor King John, he is widely considered one of England’s worst kings. He lost most of England’s possessions in France, and in 1215 had to sign the Magna Carta, a guarantee of rights forced on him by a group of rebellious barons, who were fed up with his abuses.

Into this historical situation strides the legendary Robin Hood, originally a man of the yeoman class, non-noble landowners who farmed their own land. Later legend makes of him a nobleman. Skilled with the bow and the sword, he and his “Band of Merry Men” live in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, where according to tradition they “rob from the rich and give to the poor.”

Robin and his Merry Men have a mortal enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham. He is the prince’s supporter, and a petty tyrant who collects exorbitant taxes from the common people; these are the funds which Robin et al confiscate for “redistribution.”

Accompanying Robin are the ironically-named Little John, a giant of a man whom Robin first met when John bested him in hand-to-hand combat with long staffs, Friar Tuck, a jovial “holy man” who has a taste for good food and wine, Will Scarlet (with various spellings), whom some sources say was Robin’s nephew (the uncle-nephew relationship is very important in late medieval literature), and last but certainly not least, Maid Marian, Robin’s love interest who was brave and independent as well as beautiful.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. social situation

2. oppressive ruler

3. a kind of Christian monk

4. additions

5. jolly, cheerful

6. level, rank

7. take away, replace by force

8. a kind of law officer

9. excessively high

10. “and other people”

深圳报业集团版权所有, 未经授权禁止复制; Copyright 2010-2020, All Rights Reserved.
Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@126.com