<Dd> Of my good he shall haue some, </Dd> <Dd> Yf he be a por man . </Dd> <P> As it happens the next traveller is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy . The first explicit statement to the effect that Robin Hood habitually robbed from the rich to give the poor can be found in John Stow's Annales of England (1592), about a century after the publication of the Gest . But from the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; the Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob: </P> <Dl> <Dd> loke ye do no husbonde harme </Dd> <Dd> That tilleth with his ploughe . </Dd> <Dd> No more ye shall no gode yeman </Dd> <Dd> That walketh by gren - wode shawe; </Dd> <Dd> Ne no knyght ne no squyer </Dd> <Dd> That wol be a gode felawe . </Dd> </Dl>

When was the story of robin hood written