Robin Hood / A collection of all the ancient poems, songs, and ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English outlaw. To which are prefixed historical anecdotes of his life.

by Unknown

[356] Because of Robyn Hode. MS.

[357] The. MS.

[358] That gode was with ale. MS.

[359] Mere. MS.

GLOSSARY.

Abye, [to suffer].

Air, early.

Alderbest, best of all. This phrase, which occurs in Chaucer, is corrupted in De Worde’s edition to “al ther” and “al theyre,” which Coplande has changed to “al of the;” whence it may be inferred that the expression was become already obsolete, and consequently that the poem is of much greater antiquity than 1520: and yet Shakespeare, above half a century after, puts the word Alderliefest into the mouth of Queen Margaret in his Second Part of Henry the Sixth.

Angels, pieces of gold coin, value 10s.