"Nobody.is.my.Name.that.Beyreth.Every.Bodyes.Blame."
The ballad commences as follows:—
"Many speke of Robin Hoode that never shott in his bowe,
So many have layed faultes to me, which I did never knowe;
But nowe, beholde, here I am,
Whom all the worlde doeth diffame;
Long have they also scorned me,
And locked my mouthe for speking free.
As many a Godly man they have so served
Which unto them God's truth hath shewed;
Of such they have burned and hanged some.
That unto their ydolatrye wold not come:
The Ladye Truthe they have locked in cage,
Saying of her Nobodye had knowledge.
For as much nowe as they name Nobodye
I thinke verilye they speke of me:
Whereffore to answere I nowe beginne—
The locke of my mouthe is opened with ginne,
Wrought by no man, but by God's grace,
Unto whom be prayse in every place," &c.
Larwood and Hotten's History of Signboards.
[7] Pulse.—All sorts of leguminous seeds.
[8] See Dedication to The Scourge of Baseness.
[9] Master Doctor Holland.—The once well-known Philemon Holland, Physician, and "Translator-General of his Age," published translations of Livy, 1600; Pliny's "Natural History," 1601; Camden's "Britannica," &c. He is said to have used in translation more paper and fewer pens than any other writer before or since, and who "would not let Suetonius be Tranquillus." Born at Chelmsford, 1551; died 1636.
[10] Edmund Branthwaite.—Robert Branthwaite, William Branthwaite Cant., and "Thy assured friend" R. B., have each written Commendatory Verses to all the Works of John Taylor. London 1630. And Southey in his "Lives and Works of Uneducated Poets," has the following:—"One might have hoped in these parts for a happy meeting between John Taylor and Barnabee, of immortal memory; indeed it is likely that the Water-Poet and the Anti-Water-Poet were acquainted, and that the latter may have introduced him to his connections hereabout, Branthwaite being the same name as Brathwait, and Barnabee's brother having married a daughter of this Sir John Dalston."
[11] Pierce Penniless, by Thomas Nash. London, 1592.
[12] This "ordnance of iron" still exists there, and is historically known as "Mons Meg" and popularly as "Long Meg."
[13] Receite.—A receptacle.