+The Text+ of this half-carol, half-ballad is taken from the Sloane MS.
2593, whence we get _Saint Stephen and King Herod_ and other charming
pieces like the well-known carol, 'I syng of a mayden.' It is written in
eight long lines in the MS.
+The Story.+--Wright, who printed the above MS. for the Warton Club in
1856, remarks that Adam was supposed to have remained bound in the
_limbus patrum_ from the time of his death until the Crucifixion. In the
romance of _Owain Miles_ (Cotton MS. Calig. A. ii.) the bishops told
Owain that Adam was 'yn helle with Lucyfere' for four thousand six
hundred and four years. On account of this tradition incorporated in the
carol, I have ventured to include it as a ballad, although it does not
find a place in Professor Child's collection.