Chapter XIII: Book II: Ballads That Illustrate

SHAKESPEARE.

Our great dramatic poet having occasionally quoted many ancient ballads, and even taken the plot of one, if not more, of his plays from among them, it was judged proper to preserve as many of these as could be recovered, and, that they might be the more easily found, to exhibit them in one collective view. This Second Book is therefore set apart for the reception of such ballads as are quoted by Shakespeare, or contribute in any degree to illustrate his writings: this being the principal point in view, the candid reader will pardon the admission of some pieces that have no other kind of merit.

I.

ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLEY,

Were three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered them formerly as famous in the north of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far from Carlisle (called corruptly in the ballad Englishwood, whereas Engle, or Ingle-wood, signifies wood for firing). At what time they lived does not appear. The author of the common ballad on "The Pedigree, Education and Marriage of Robin Hood," makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them, viz.:

"The father of Robin a Forester was,
and he shot in a lusty long-bow,
Two north-country miles and an inch at a shot,
as the Pinder of Wakefield does know:

For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clugh,
and William a Clowdéslee,
To shoot with our Forester for forty mark;
and the Forester beat them all three."

_Collect. of Old Ballads_, vol. i. (1723), p. 67.

This seems to prove that they were commonly thought to have lived before the popular hero of Sherwood.

Our northern archers were not unknown to their southern countrymen: their excellence at the long-bow is often alluded to by our ancient poets. Shakespeare, in his comedy of _Much adoe about nothing_, act i., makes Benedick confirm his resolves of not yielding to love, by this protestation, "If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat,[682] and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the shoulder, and called _Adam_:" meaning _Adam Bell_, as Theobald rightly observes, who refers to one or two other passages in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford editor has also well conjectured, that "Abraham Cupid" in _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 1, should be "_Adam_ Cupid," in allusion to our archer. Ben Jonson has mentioned _Clym o' the Clough_ in his _Alchemist_, act i. sc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of his, called "_The long vacation in London_," describes the Attorneys and Proctors, as making matches to meet in Finsbury fields.

"With loynes in canvas bow-case tyde:[683]
Where arrowes stick with mickle pride; ...
Like ghosts of _Adam Bell_ and _Clymme_.
Sol sets for fear they'l shoot at him."

_Works_, 1673, fol. p. 291.

I have only to add further concerning the principal hero of this Ballad, that the _Bells_ were noted rogues in the North so late as the time of Q. Elizabeth. See in Rymer's _Foedera_, a letter from lord William Howard to some of the officers of state, wherein he mentions them.

As for the following stanzas, which will be judged from the style, orthography, and numbers, to be of considerable antiquity, they were here given (corrected in some places by a MS. copy in the Editor's old folio) from a black-letter 4to. _Imprinted at London in Lothburye by Wyllyam Copland_ (no date). That old quarto edition seems to be exactly followed in _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, &c._ Lond. 1791,[684] 8vo., the variations from which that occur in the following copy, are selected from many others in the folio MS. above-mentioned, and when distinguished by the usual inverted 'comma,' have been assisted by conjecture.

In the same MS. this Ballad is followed by another, intitled _Younge Cloudeslee_, being a continuation of the present story, and reciting the adventures of Willian of Cloudesly's son: but greatly inferior to this both in merit and antiquity.

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[The version here printed differs but slightly from the one in the
Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1868, vol. iii. p. 76), and as
the latter is of no critical value it has been thought unnecessary
to point out the various readings. A fragment of an older edition
than Copland's mentioned above has been recovered by Mr. Payne
Collier, which is attributed to the press of Wynkyn de Worde by Mr.
W. C. Hazlitt.

This spirited ballad is mentioned by Laneham in his Catalogue of
Captain Cox's ballads, and the various editions it has passed
through, and the frequent references to it in literature, prove its
great and deserved popularity.

The circumstances of the second Fit resemble closely the rescue of
Robin Hood by Little John, as related in "Robin Hood and the Monk,"
and the incident of the shot at the apple in the third Fit bears a
curious likeness to the very ancient myth which is associated with
William Tell. "Allane Bell" is mentioned by Dunbar in company with
Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne, and others, which proves that in his
time these names had become mere abstractions.]

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