[32] Thus also in part ii. ballad 1:
“She got on her holyday kirtle and gown
They were of a light Lincolne green.”
[33] In the sign of The green man and still, we perceive a huntsman in a green coat standing by the side of a still; in allusion, as it has been facetiously conjectured, to the partiality shown by that description of gentry to a morning dram. The genuine representation, however, should be the green-man (or man who deals in green herbs) with a bundle of peppermint or penny-royal under his arm, which he brings to have distilled.
“And farewell all gaie garments now,
With jewels riche of rare devise:
Like Robin Hood, I wot not how,
I must goe raunge in woodmen’s wyse,
Cladde in a cote of greene or gray,
And gladde to get it if i maye.”