Guy of Gisburne
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Sir Guy of Gisburne (also spelled Gisbourne, Gysborne or Gisborn) is a villain in the Robin Hood legends. In The Ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, in which Robin kills him and cuts off his head, he is described so:
- There were they ware of a wight yemàn, [wight = sturdy]
- His body lean’d to a tree.
- A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
- Of manye a man the bane;
- And he was clad in his capull-hyde [capull-hyde = horse-hide]
- Topp and tayll and mayne
- [...]
- ‘I dwell by dale and downe,’ quoth hee,
- ‘And Robin to take I’me sworne;
- And when I am callèd by my right name
- I am Guy of good Gisborne.’
The role of Guy of Gisburne has been played by such actors as Basil Rathbone (The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938), Tom Baker (The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood, 1984), Robert Addie (in the British television series Robin of Sherwood, 1984-6) and Michael Wincott (in the movie Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves). In the British television series Maid Marian and her Merry Men he was portrayed as an overgrown spoilt child by Ramsay Gilderdale.
External links
- Text of The Ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne (http://www.bartleby.com/243/116.html)
- Gisburne's Nasty Knight Page (http://nasty_knight.tripod.com/)