Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar earlier version, Robin Hood good-humoredly refuses further combat; in both earlier and later versions Robin invites him to join the band. Howard Pyle used this tale in his "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" as part of the tale of Alan-a-Dale: Robin needed a priest who would perform the wedding ceremony in defiance of authority, and Will Scarlet proposed Friar Tuck. The Percy Folio version of the ballad begins with the stanza: Robert Graves in his "English and Scottish Ballads" used this stanza to support his argument for pagan survivals in the Robin Hood legend, and for the popular survival
Robin Hood in popular culture Robin Hood in popular culture The folkloric hero Robin Hood has appeared many times, in many different variations, in popular modern works. Robin Hood has appeared in a number of plays throughout the medieval, early modern and modern periods. The first record of a Robin Hood play being performed is in Exeter in 1426-27. The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood play is dated c.1475 and entitled "Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham". The plays which perhaps have been most influential upon the Robin Hood legend as a whole are Anthony Munday's "The Downfall of Robert, Earle of