There are cases where we amateurs get to laugh at the pros. The click below takes you to a text and commentary of "Robin Hood and Maid Marian". The editors don't mention the S.S. at the end, which means it's by Samuel Smithson, and must be within a few years of 1660. Smithson had a subtle sense of humour, and wrote the ballad as a parody of all the recent Robin Hood ballads, probably a swipe directed at Thomas Robbins who wrote 3 of them. Literary scholars haven't tracked down Smithson and found out his style, and completely missed the boat on this one. click
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