Samuel Smithson (fl. 1655–90): The Forgotten Broadside Ballad Author of “Robin Hood and Maid Marian” (c.1660–96) | Stephen Basdeo

This article recovers Samuel Smithson, a prolific seventeenth-century broadside ballad writer, as the author of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Moving beyond debates of literary merit, it shows how professional balladists helped sustain and reshape the Robin Hood tradition through early modern print culture in England.