ABSTRACT
For all the mythic advantages of Robin Hood’s multivalanced he has occasionally to assume tangible form. In illustration or in performance, visualization entails judgments about appearance and costume. In the case of sixteenth-century printers, the evidence points to the economy of finding a close match between Robin’s status recorded in the early writings with that of figures in existing cuts, rather than incurring the expense of commissioning original images. The major role played by Little John in the Geste and the early ballads raises the possibility that he was the subject of a separate tradition that was eventually absorbed by that of Robin Hood. As has often been noted, the third fytte of the Geste is a Little John tale and the ballad Robin Hood and the Monk could just as easily have been given the title ‘Little John rescues Robin Hood’.
