The ufual time of acting was early in the afternoon (i), plays being generally performed by day-light (k). All female parts were performed by men, no English actress being ever feen on the public stage (1) before the civil wars. And as for the playhouse furniture and ornaments, tho' fome houfes were probably more decorated than others, yet in general "they had no other "fcenes nor decorations of the ftage, but only old tapefry, and the ftage ftrewed with rushes, with "habits accordingly (m):" as we are affured in a short difcourfe on the English ftage, fubjoined to Flecknoe's LOVE'S KINGDOM, 1674. 12mo.

66

SOME ADDITIONS TO THE FOREGOING ESSAY WILL BE
FOUND AT THE END OF THIS VOLUME.

(i)" He entertaines us (fays Overbury in his character of an Actor) "in the beft leafure of our life, that is, betweene meales; "the most unfit time either for ftudy, or bodily exercife."-Even fo late as in the reign of Cha. II. Plays generally began at 3 in the afternoon. (k) See Biogr. Brit. I. 117. n. D.

(1) I fay no ENGLISH Actrefs-on the PUBLIC Stage," becaufe Pryane fpeaks of it as an unusual enormity, that "they had French-women actors in a play not long fince perfonated in Black"friars Playhoufe." This was in 1629. vid. p. 215. And tho' female parts were performed by men or boys on the public stage, yet in Mafques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no fcruple to perform the principal parts, especially in the reigns of Jam. I. and Cha. I. Sir William Davenant, after the reftoration introduced women, fcenery, and higher prices. See Cibber's Apology for his own Life.

(m) It appears from an Epigram of Taylor the Water-poet, that one of the principal theatres in his time, viz. The Globe on the Bankfide, Southwark, (which Ben Jonfon calls the Glory of the Bank, and Fort of the whole Parish), had been covered with thatch till it was burnt down in 1613.-(See Taylor's Sculler. Epig. 22. p. 31. Jonfon's Execration on Vulcan.)

..

Puttenham tells us they ufed Vizards in his time, "partly to fupply the want of players, when there were more parts than there "were perfons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble "princes chambers with too many folkes." [Art of Eng. Poef. 1589. p. 26.] From the laft claufe, it fhould feem that they were chiefly used in the MASQUES at Court.

I.

ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLY,

were three noted outlaws, whofe skill in archery rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hobin and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of refidence was in the foreft of Englewood, not far from Carlisle, (called corruptly in the ballad Englifb-wood, whereas Engle, or Ingle-wood fignifies Wood for firing.) At what time they lived does not appear. author of the common ballad on "THE PEDIGREE, EDU66 CATION, AND MARRIAGE, OF ROBIN HOOD," makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them: viz.

The father of ROBIN a Forefter was,
And he fhot in a lusty long-bow

Two north-country miles and an inch at a foot,
As the Pindar of Wakefield does know :

For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough,
And William a Clowdeflee

To fhoot with our Forefter for forty mark;

And our Forefter beat them all three.

The

Collect. of Old Ballads. 1727, 1 vol. p. 67.

This feems to prove that they were commonly thought to have lived before the popular Hero of Sherwood.

66

Our northern archers were not unknown to their fouthern countrymen, their excellence at the long-bow is often alluded to by our ancient poets. Shakespeare, in his comedy of "MUCH adoe about nothing," Act 1. makes Benedicke confirm his refolves of not yielding to love, by this proteftation, If I do, bang me in a bottle like a cat*, and shoot at me, "and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the shoulder and "called ADAM :" meaning ADAM BELL, as Theobald rightly obferves, who refers to one or two other paffages in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford editor bas alfo well conjectured that " Abraham Cupid" in Romeo and Juliet, A. 2. S. 1. fhould be " ADAM Cupid," in allufion to our archer. Ben Johnson has mentioned CLYM O' THE CLOUGH in his Alchemift, A&t x. fc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of his, called "THE long vacation in London," defcribes the Attorneys and Proctors, as making matches to meet in Finsbury fields.

"With loynes in canvas bow-cafe tyde;
"Where arrowes ftick with mickle pride; .
"Like ghofts of ADAM BELL and CLYMME.
"Sol fets for fear they'l shoot at him.”

Works, p. 291. fol. 1673.

I have only to add further concerning the principal Hero of this Ballad, that the BELLS were noted rogues in the North fo late as the time of 2. Elizabeth. See in Rymer's Fædera, a letter from lord William Howard to fome of the officers of fate, wherein he mentions them.

As for the following ftanzas, they will be judged from the ftyle, orthography, and numbers, to be very ancient : they are given from an old black-letter quarto, Imprinted at London in Lothburye by Wylipam Copland (no date): corrected

*Bottles formerly were of leather; though perhaps a wooden bottle might be bere meant. It is fill a diverfion in Scotland to hang up a cat in a small cafk or firkin, half filled with foot: and then a parcel of clowns en borfcback try to beat out the ends of it, in order to foe their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall upont bem.

corrected in fome places by another copy in the editor's folio MS. In that volume this ballad is followed by another, intitled YOUNGE CLOUDESLEE, being a continuation of the prefent ftory, and reciting the adventures of William of Cloudefly's fon: but greatly inferior to this both in merit and antiquity.

PART THE FIRST.

MERY it was in grene forèft
Amonge the levès grene,

Wheras men hunt eaft and weft

Wyth bowes and arrowes kene;

To ryfe the dere out of theyr denne;
Suche fightes hath ofte bene fene;
As by thre yemen of the north countrèy,
By them it is I meane.

The one of them hight Adam Bel,
The other Clym of the Clough,
The thyrd was William of Cloudefly,
An archer good ynough.

They were outlawed for venyfon,

Thefe yemen everychone;

They swore them brethren upon a day,
To Englyshe wood for to gone.

15

Now

1

Now lith and lyften, gentylmen,
That of myrthe loveth to here:
Two of them were fingele men,

The third had a wedded fere.

Wyllyam was the wedded man,

20

Muche more than was hys care :
He fayde to hys brethren upon a day,

To Carleil he wold fare;

For to fpeke with fayre Alyce his wife,
And with hys chyldren thre.
By my trouth, fayde Adam Bel,
Not by the counsell of me :

25

For if ye go to Carleil, brother,

And from thys wylde wode wende,

30

If the justice may you take,

Your lyfe were at an ende.

If that I come not to-morowe, brother,

By pryme to you agayne,

Trufte not els, but that I am take,

35

Or elfe that I am slayne.

He toke hys leave of hys brethren two,

And to Carleil he is gon:

There he knocked at his owne windowe

Shortlye and anone.

Wher

Ver. 24. Caerlel, in PC. passim.