The Sad Shepherd

Ben Jonson's unfinished play "The Sad Shepherd", published in 1641, is noted as the only pre-modern Robin Hood story in which the outlaw directly confronts the supernatural. In it, Robin must stop the witch Maudlin of Papplewick, who uses shapeshifting and illusions to trick, rob and torment local people. Readers of literary and theatre history are highlighting the unusual fusion of folk hero and witchcraft motifs in Jonson's late work.