[66] There is an entry of ‘Miller and King’ (among 128 ballads), December 14, 1624; another entry, June 30, 1625: Stationers’ Registers, Arber, IV, 131, 143. The broadside is in many of the collections: ‘A pleasant ballad of King Henry second and the Miller of Mansfield,’ Roxburghe, I, 178, 228, III, 853, the first reprinted by Chappell, Roxburghe Ballads, I, 537; Pepys, I, 528, No 272; Bagford, II, 25; Wood, 401, fol. 5 b, ‘A pleasant new ballad of the Miller of Mansfield in Sherwood and K. Henry the Second,’ Wood, 254, iv, ‘The pleasant history of the Miller of Mansfield,’ etc., dated 1655; Crawford, No 491. Also, ‘Kinge and Miller,’ Percy MS., p. 235, Hales and Furnivall, II, 147 (see Appendix); Percy’s Reliques, 1765, III, 179, the MS. copy “with corrections” from the Pepys.—Not in the ballad-stanza.
[67] John the Reeve is mentioned (in conjunction with Rauf Coilyear) by G. Douglas, Palice of Honour, 1501, Small, I, 65, v. 3, and by Dunbar, about 1510, Small, I, 105, v. 33; John the Reeve again by Lindsay, The Complaynt of the Papingo, 1530, Chalmers, I, 318.
[68] Reprinted in Laing’s Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, from the edition of St Andrews, 1572; thence in Charlemagne Romances, No 6, ed. S. J. Herrtage, Early English Text Society, 1882. As to the date, see Max Tonndorf, Rauf Coilyear, Halle a. S. 1893, p. 13 ff.
[69] So far 767 verses of 975: the rest is not pertinent and is very poor stuff. ‘Rauf Coilyear’ is a clever piece, but I cannot think with Mr Herrtage that it is “quite original.” Its exaggerations suggest a second hand; the author means to pepper higher with his churl’s discourtesy than had been done before. The ‘marshalling’ in 183-86 recalls ‘John the Reeve,’ 342-50.
[70] Printed in Hartshorne’s Ancient Metrical Tales, p. 35. Professor Kittredge has called my attention to a stanza of Occleve’s which shows that the belief that Edward III went about in disguise among his subjects prevailed not long after the king’s death.
O worthy kyng benigne, Edwarde the laste,
Thow hadest ofte in thyne hart a drede impressede
Whiche that thyne humble goste fulle sore agaste,
And to knowe yf thow cursed were or blessede,
Amonge the peple ofte hast thow the dressede