[140], the, OCC.
ADAM BEL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGHE, AND WYLLYAM OF CLOUDESLÈ.
This favorite and delightful ballad was printed by William Copland, without date, but probably not far from 1550. Only a single copy of this edition is known to be preserved. There is another edition by James Roberts, printed in 1605, with a second part entitled Young Cloudeslee, "a very inferior and servile production," says Ritson. Mr. Payne Collier has recently recovered a fragment of an excellent edition considerably older than Copland's.
Adam Bell, &c., was also entered at Stationers' Hall in 1557-8, as licensed to John King. Another entry occurs in the same registers under 1582, and in 1586 mention is made of "A ballad of Willm. Clowdisley never printed before." No one of these three impressions is known to be extant.
Percy inserted this piece in his Reliques, (i. 158,) following Copland's edition, with corrections from his folio manuscript. Ritson adhered to Copland's text with his usual fidelity, (Pieces of Popular Poetry, p. 1.) We have printed the ballad from Ritson, with some important improvements derived from a transcript of Mr. Collier's fragment most kindly furnished by that gentleman. This fragment extends from the 7th verse of the second fit to the 55th of the third, but is somewhat mutilated.
"Allane Bell" is mentioned by Dunbar in company
with Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne, and others. The editor of the Reliques has pointed out several allusions to the ballad in our dramatic poets, which show the extreme popularity of the story. "Shakespeare, in his comedy of Much Ado 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, 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,
Where arrowes stick with mickle pride;
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme;
Sol sits for fear they'l shoot at him.'—