SOURCE: Margeson, J. M. R. “Dramatic Form: The Huntington Plays.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 14, no. 2 (spring 1974): 223-38.

In the following essay, Margeson examines The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington within the romance tradition.

Recent editions by the Malone Society of The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington may renew interest in these plays which have been looked at in the past chiefly because of complicated problems of authorship and revision,¹ or because of their place in the Robin Hood canon. There are indeed good reasons for a new interest. Although they have been strongly criticized as unsatisfactory mixtures of folk tale, melodrama, and farce, it seems to me that they have been held up against the wrong models. They are not chronicle plays nor pastoral comedy mixed with tragedy of blood but primarily romances.² They...