In "A Gest of Robyn Hode" what is the significance of the word "gode"?

Question

A Gest of Robyn Hode is one of the earliest surviving texts featuring a tale about the Robin Hood character.

Consider the following excerpt of the text...

loke ye do no husband harm
That tilleth with his plow
No more ye shall no gode yeman
That walketh by gren-wode shawe;
Nor no knight nor no squire
That wol be a gode fella.

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What contemporary word is best related to the archaic word "gode" ...

Number	Word	Definition
1	god	noun An omnipotent, omniscient, ethically good being who is worshipped (as in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) as creator of the universe
2	good	adjective pleasure inducing for a specific individual person, but not pleasurable for society in general e.g. "This is a good tasting sandwich"
3	good	adjective ethical, moral, and/or self-sacrificing, especially while improving the welfare of a group of people "Boiled unground wheat, not noodles, and not bread, is good in that less carbon dioxide is emitted in the case where whole wheat is used."
4	guard	protect or secure
5	goad	taunt or tease

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Suppose that we were to translate the following sentence from 17th century English into contemporary English. What might the result be?

"No more ye shall no gode yeman"

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Note that the phrase, "No more ye shall" is equivalent to one or more of the following phrases...

• No more shall you
• No more will you
• You shall not
• You will not
• Know more you shall
• You shall know and learn more

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We have somthing like this...

"You will not no gode yeman"

... or this...

"You shall not no gode yeman"

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Do you suppose that it is all one imperative command, or two seperate imperative commands?

We can split the original line into two seperate lines.

You shall not do these things anymore!
No gode yeman!

...or differently...

No more ye shall!
And more than that, no gode yeman!

The string of text "no gode yeman" is now a separate imperative command.

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"know" versus "no"

The words "know" and "no" have the same sound, but different spellings.

You shall not know god yeman
No more ye shall know gode yeman

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Some candidate translations and commentaries are shown below. However, at least one of the proposed translations is in-consistent in meaning with the original text. Which translation do you believe best represents the original text?

1. No more shall you goad young men
   do not taunt young men
   you shall not gode yeman
   No more ye shall no gode yeman
   
   

2. 
   No more you shall no guard yeman
   no more shall you fail to guard the yeman
   an imperative command to guard the yeman in the future
   No more ye shall no gode yeman
   
   

3. 
   in scolding tone
   as a reprimand
   
   No more shall you do these things, you no good yeman!
   (you are a no good yeman!)
   No more ye shall! You no gode yeman
   
   No more shall you do these things, you no good yeman!
   (you are a no good yeman!)
   No more ye shall no gode yeman
   
   
   

4. You shall not know god yeman
   No more shall you know god young man
   No more ye shall no/know gode yeman
   
   
   

5. 
   Know more; You shall know god youngman
   
   No more ye shall no gode yeman
   (an imperative command to learn more)
   

Answer 1

I think that it is meaning 3. The stanza is saying that you will not harm the plowing husbandman, the good yeoman walking in the wood, the knight, or the squire (levels of citizenship in English society). You can see a similar phrase in lines 3 and 4:

I shall you tel of a gode yeman,
His name was Robyn Hode.

So basically, the stanza is saying

Look, do no husbandman harm
That tilleth with his plow
Neither should you [harm] a good yeoman
That walks within the woods
Nor [harm] no knight nor no squire
That is a good person.

These lines are in response to Little John asking him who they should rob, beat, and bind, with further lines afterwards where Robin says that they will rob, beat, and bind the (corrupt) bishops and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

'Maistar,' than sayde Lytil Johnn,
'And we our borde shal sprede,
Tell vs wheder that we shal go,
And what life that we shall lede.
'Where we shall take, where we shall leue,
Where we shall abide behynde;
Where we shall robbe, where we shal reue,
Where we shal bete and bynde.'
'Therof no force,' than sayde Robyn;
'We shall do well inowe;
But loke ye do no husbonde harme,
That tilleth with his ploughe.
'No more ye shall no gode yeman
That walketh by gren -wode shawe;
Ne no knyght ne no squyer
That wol be a gode felawe.
'These bisshoppes and these archebishoppes,
Ye shall them bete and bynde;
The hy sherif of Notyingham,
Hym holde ye in your mynde.'