Robin Hood in popular culture Robin Hood novel, standing at almost half-a-million words, is Pierce Egan the Younger's "Robin Hood and Little John; or, The Merrie Men of Sherwood Forest" (serialised 1838-1840). As in "Ivanhoe", Robin is a Saxon, although he is not actually outlawed in the novel until nearly the end of the first book. The novel traces Robin's life from birth to death. Egan's text was translated into two French books, "Le prince des voleurs (The Prince of Thieves)," and "Robin Hood le proscrit (Robin Hood the Outlaw)", by Alexandre Dumas, between 1863–64. Dumas' works were then retranslated back into English by Alfred
Robin Hood "Historia Majoris Britanniæ" (1521), (and he also may have been influenced in so doing by the story of Fulk Fitz Warin) This was the period in which King Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the Third Crusade. William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play "The Two Gentlemen of Verona". In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They comment, 'By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a