NOTES:-- Page
Old Popular Poetry: "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough,
and William of Clowdesly," by J. Payne Collier 445
Witchcraft, by Rev. H. T. Ellacombe 446
Spring, &c., by Thomas Keightley 448
Notes and Queries on Bacon's Essays, No. III., by
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A. 448
Shakspeare Correspondence, by S. W. Singer, Cecil
Harbottle, &c. 449
MINOR NOTES:--Local Rhymes, Norfolk--"Hobson's
Choice"--Khond Fable--Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton,
Bart.--Anagrams 452
QUERIES:--
Seal of William d'Albini 452
Forms of Judicial Oath, by Henry H. Breen 453
MINOR QUERIES:--Passage in Boerhaave--Story of
Ezzelin--The Duke--General Sir Dennis Pack--Haveringemere--Old
Pictures of the Spanish Armada--Bell
Inscription--Loselerius Villerius, &c.--The
Vinegar Plant--Westminster Parishes--Harley Family--Lord
Cliff--Enough--Archbishop Magee--Carpets
at Rome--Nursery Rhymes--Gloves at Fairs--Mr.
Caryl or Caryll--Early Reaping-machines 453
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--"Diary of a
Self-Observer"--Jockey--Boyle Lectures 456
REPLIES:--
The Discovery and Recovery of MSS., by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie 456
"The Whippiad" 457
Spontaneous Combustion, by Shirley Hibberd 458
Major-General Lambert, by Edgar MacCulloch 459
The "Salt-peter-man," by J. Deck 460
Metrical Psalms and Hymns, by J. Sansom 460
The Sign of the Cross in the Greek Church 461
PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES:--New Developing
Fluid--Photographic Tent--Mr. Wilkinson's simple
Mode of levelling Cameras--Antiquarian Photographic
Club 462
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Erroneous Forms of
Speech: Mangel Wurzel--The Whetstone--Charade--Parochial
Libraries--Judge Smith--Church Catechism--Charade
attributed to Sheridan--Gesmas and
Desmas--Lode--Epitaphs imprecatory--Straw-bail--How
to stain Deal--Detached Belfry Towers 463
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 465
Books and Odd volumes wanted 465
Notices to Correspondents 466
Advertisements 466
* * * * *
Notes.
OLD POPULAR POETRY: "ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF
CLOWDESLY."
I have very recently become possessed of a curious printed fragment, which
is worth notice on several accounts, and will be especially interesting to
persons who, like myself, are lovers of our early ballad poetry. It is part
of an unknown edition of the celebrated poem relating to the adventures of
Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly.
There are (as many of your readers will be aware from Ritson's small
volume, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, 8vo. 1791) two old editions of
_Adam Bell, &c._, one printed by William Copland, without date, and the
other by James Roberts in 1605. The edition by Copland must have preceded
that by Roberts by forty or fifty years, and may have come out between 1550
and 1560; the only known copy of it is among the Garrick Plays (at least it
was so when I saw it) in the British Museum. The re-impression by Roberts
is not very uncommon, and I think that more than one copy of it is at
Oxford.
When Copland printed the poem, he did not enter it at Stationers' Hall;
comparatively few of his publications, generally of a free, romantic, or
ludicrous character, were licensed, and he was three times fined for not
first obtaining the leave of the Company. Nevertheless, we do find an entry
of a "book" called "Adam Bell," &c., among the memoranda belonging to the
year 1557-8, but it was made at the instance, not of Copland, but of John
Kynge, in this form:
"To John Kynge, to prynte this boke called Adam Bell, &c., and for his
lycense he geveth to the howse"--
What sum he gave is not stated. Again, we meet with another notice of it in
the same registers, under the date of 1581-2, when John Charlwood was
interested in the undertaking. I mention these two entries principally
because neither Ritson nor Percy were acquainted with them; but they may be
seen among the extracts published by the Shakspeare Society in 1848 and
1849. {446}
No impressions by Kynge or Charlwood having come down to us, we have no
means of knowing whether they availed themselves of the permission granted
at Stationers' Hall; and, unless I am deceived, the fragment which
occasions this Note is not from the presses of either of them, and is of an
earlier date than the time of Copland; the type is much better, and less
battered, than that of Copland; at the same time it has a more antique
look, and in several respects, which I am about to point out, it furnishes
a better text than that given by Ritson from Copland's edition, or by Percy
with the aid of his folio manuscript. I am sorry to say that it only
consists of a single sheet; but this is nearly half the production, and it
comprises the whole of the second, and two pages of the third "fit." The
first line and the last of the portion in my hands, testify to the greater
antiquity and purity of the text there found; it begins--
"These gates be shut so wonderly well;"
and it ends,
"Tyll they came to the kynge's palays."
It is "_wonderous_ well" in Copland's impression, and palace is there spelt
"pallace," a more modern form of the word than _palays_. Just afterwards we
have, in my fragment,
"Streyght comen from oure kyng,"
instead of Copland's
"Streyght _come nowe_ from our king."
_Comen_ is considerably more ancient than "come nowe;" so that, without
pursuing this point farther, I may say that my fragment is not only an
older specimen of typography than Copland's impression, but older still in
its words and phraseology, a circumstance that communicates to it
additional interest. I subjoin a few various readings, most, if not all, of
them presenting a superior text than is to be met with elsewhere. Speaking
of the porter at the gate of Carlisle, we are told--
"And to the gate faste he throng."
Copland's edition omits _faste_, and it is not met with in Percy. In
another place a rhyme is lost by an awkward transposition, "he saide" for
_sayd he_; and farther on, in Copland's text, we have mention of
"The justice with a quest of squyers."
instead of "a quest of _swerers_," meaning of course the jury who had
condemned Cloudesly "there hanged to be." Another blunder committed by
Copland is the omission of a word, so that a line is left without its
corresponding rhyme:
"Then Clowdysle cast hys eyen aside,
And sawe his two bretheren _stande_
At the corner of the market-place,
With theyr good bowes bent in theyr hand."
The word I print in Italics is entirely wanting in Copland. It is curious
to see how Percy (_Reliques_, i. 157., ed. 1775) gets over the difficulty
by following no known copy of the original:
"Then Cloudesle cast his eyen asyde,
And saw hys brethren twaine
At a corner of the market-place,
Ready the justice for to slaine."
Cloudesly is made to exclaim, in all editions but mine, "I see comfort,"
instead of "I see _good_ comfort." However, it would perhaps be wearisome
to press this matter farther, and I have said enough to set a few of your
readers, zealous in such questions, rummaging their stores to ascertain
whether any text with which they are acquainted, tallies with that I have
above quoted.