"I wyll be thy true servaunte / And trewely serve thee": Guildhall Minstrelsy in the Gest of Robyn Hode

Although the Gest of Robyn Hode is familiar as the earliest-known verse life of the medieval English outlaw, virtually no scholars have offered detailed conjecture about the manner of its earliest performance. Offering an analysis of the potential of the aged text as performed narrative, Hoffman traces the tale back to a satirical reproduction as an example of confraternity and sophisticated levels of stylization of "semi-dramatic minstrel 'talking.'"