The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #90058   Message #1707234
Posted By: LadyJean
31-Mar-06 - 12:09 AM
Thread Name: BS: Friar Tuck
Subject: RE: BS: Friar Tuck
There are three medieval English plays about Robin Hood still extant. Robin Hood and the Monk is the only one that is still complete.
The monk in question calls himself Friar Tuck, so he's been around a long time.
Robin, a tough guy, decides to take on Friar Tuck because he's heard Tuck is another tough guy.
Little John advises against it, as he's tussled with the monk, and it was a painful experience.
Enter Friar Tuck sayind Deus Hic, (Which we interpreted as a belch.) and discussing his prowess as a fighter. Robin asks him to carry him across a stream. Tuck drops him in the water. They fight, and Robin wins, then introduces Tuck to "a lady free, and I her chaplain do thee make to serve her for my lady's sake".
Tuck then recites a ribald little rhyme suggesting the lady isn't chaste. And they dance.
I put together a production of the 3 Robin Hood plays for the SCA some years ago. Our Friar Tuck was a nice Jewish boy, with a nice bald spot where his tonsure should be.
Tuck is called the Friar of Fountains Abbey, which was a Cistercian house. But Cistercians were cloistered.