Friar Tuck royal writs in 1417 refer to Robert Stafford, a Sussex chaplain who had assumed the alias of Frere Tuk. This "Friar Tuck" was still at large in 1429. These are the earliest surviving references to a character by that name. In the 1891 romantic opera "Ivanhoe" by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Julian Sturgis, Friar Tuck was played by Avon Saxon. In the film "Robin Hood" (1922) he was portrayed by Willard Louis. In the film, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) the character Friar Tuck was played by actor Eugene Pallette as a fat individual fond of food but also
Robin Hood ballads. The third (the "Curtal Friar") and the fourth (the "Butcher"), also probably have late medieval origins. Some ballads, such as "Erlinton", feature Robin Hood in some variants, where the folk hero appears to be added to a ballad pre-existing him and in which he does not fit very well. He was added to one variant of "Rose Red and the White Lily", apparently on no more connection than that one hero of the other variants is named "Brown Robin". Francis James Child indeed retitled Child ballad 102; though it was titled "The Birth of Robin Hood", its clear lack