ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an international reputation in both the realm of medieval theatre practice and as a leading authority on Robin Hood in customary performance. It deals with imaginative speculation which is then investigated through thorough scholarship. The book examines detailed evidence of the earliest dates of the Smiths’ accounts of their pageant in the Chester Whitsun plays and in so doing seeks to correct a mis-transcription of a seventeenth-century transcript. It attempts to locate appropriate evidence concerning the legends of Robin Hood. Lack of research into Robin Hood plays in relation to other forms of medieval drama is discussed in ‘“Comyth in Robyn Hode”: Paying and playing the outlaw in Croscombe’. Modern influences on the changing identities of Robin Hood may be seen to be determined by film and television.
