Will Scarlet
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Will Scarlet (also Scarlett, Scarlock, Scadlock, Scatheloke and Scathelocke) was a prominent member of Robin Hood's Merry Men and was present in the earliest ballads along with Little John.
The confusion of last names has led some authors to distinguish them as belonging to different characters. Howard Pyle included both a Will Scathelocke and a Will Scarlett in his Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Will Stutely may also exist a separate character because of a mistaken last name.
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[edit] Ballads
The first appearance of Will Scarlet was in one of the oldest surviving Robin Hood ballads, A Gest of Robyn Hode. He helps capture Richard at the Lee and when Robin lends that knight money to pay off his debts, he is one of the Merry Men who insists on giving him a horse and clothing appropriate to his station. This ballad shows every sign of having been pieced together from older versions that have not survived, and it is unknown how much earlier the subject matter is.
Another very early ballad featuring Will Scarlet is one variants of Robin Hood's Death, in which Will's only role is to urge a bodyguard, which Robin scorns.
A later ballad, Robin Hood and the Newly Revived, ascribes an origin story to him. Robin finds a finely dressed young man shooting deer in Sherwood, and offers to let him join the band; they quarrel and fight. Robin asks who he is; he says he is Young Gamwell, who killed his father's steward and fled his father's estate to seek out his uncle, Robin Hood. Robin makes him welcome and renames him Scarlett. This story, more or less, is the common origin story for Will Scarlet, although variations occur.
Francis Child indexed those tales: A Gest of Robyn Hode as Child Ballad 117, Robin Hood's Death as Child ballad 120, and Robin Hood Newly Revived as Child ballad 128. He also listed several other ballads featuring Will Scarlet, sometimes in a very minor role. In Robin Hood's Delight (Child Ballad 136), the common story in which Robin meets a stranger, can not outfight him, and must outwit him is altered: Robin has Little John and Will with him, and they meet three forester, resulting in the usual fight and outwitting. In Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar (Child Ballad 123), Will Scarlet tells Robin of the friar, resulting in their encounter. In Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne (Child Ballad 118), Little John is captured coming to Will's rescue after two of their band had been killed and Will was fleeing. In an unusual Robin Hood ballad Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon (Child ballad 129), Robin, Little John, and Will Scarlet come to the king's rescue, fighting the prince of the title and two giants, and ending with Will marrying the princess; this ballad, unlike the other Child ballads, is seldom used in later adaptations.
[edit] Later versions
Traditionally, most of the outlaws are often depicted as being middle-aged, whereas he is often depicted as young or youthful, sometimes in his late teens.[citation needed] In the traditional tales, Scarlet is hot-headed and tempestous, but has a love of fine elegant clothes and is often seen wearing red silk.[citation needed] He is the most skilled swordsman of the merry men whilst Robin Hood is the most skilled with a bow and arrow and Little John with a quarterstaff. In some tales Scarlet uses two swords at the same time (this was parodied in the movie Robin Hood: Men in Tights). It is believed that he is buried in the churchyard of the church of St. Mary in Blidworth, Nottinghamshire. [citation needed]
[edit] Other depictions of Will Scarlet
In both the 1938 film and 1991 TV movie, Will Scarlett is portrayed as Robin's companion (almost a squire) from the beginning, and is a witty, humorous character. In the 1938 film, the character is quite possibly merged with Alan-a-Dale, as Will plays a lute and sings in one scene. For some reason, in the current BBC TV series the same role is given to the character named Much.
In the UK TV show Robin of Sherwood, Ray Winstone portrays a very different version of Will Scarlet. Rather than the stereotypical merry sidekick, this show gave us a much bleaker, more passionate character. An ex-soldier who fought in France, he is shown as a much darker and more violent character, with a burning hatred of authority.
In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Christian Slater plays Will Scarlett, whom the film depicts as the illegitimate half-brother of Robin Hood. Robin Hood's father did not acknowledge Scarlett, and instead doted on Robin, leading Scarlett to become resentful of Robin Hood. He initially appears as a treacherous character, but later finds redemption when he helps the Merry Men rescue Maid Marian and several others from the Sheriff of Nottingham.
In Blackadder: Back & Forth, Robin Hood sarcastically says, "Is Will Scarlet a poof in tights?" (Which the camera reveals he is.)
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Qpid, Q has the crew of the Enterprise re-enact the legend of Robin Hood. Worf (Michael Dorn) plays the part of Will, despite protesting that he is "NOT a merry man!"
In the BBC series Robin Hood, Will often uses an axe as a weapon.
