I. Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly. ................................
These were three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered them
formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in
the midland counties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far
from Carlisle (called corruptly in the ballad Englishwood, whereas Engle- or Ingle-
wood, signifies wood for firing). At what time they lived does not appear. The author
of the common ballad on "The Pedigree, Education, 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 ofRobina Forrester was,
And he shot in a lusty long-bow
Two north-country miles and an inch at a shot,
As the Pindar of Wakefield does know:
For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough,
And William a Clowdéslee
To shoot with our Forester for forty mark;
And our Forester beat them all three.
Collect. of Old Ballads, 1727, vol. i p. 67.
This seems to prove that they were commonly thought to have lived before the
popular Hero of Sherwood.
Our northern archers were not unknown to their southern countrymen: their
excellence at the long-bow is often alluded to by our ancient poets. Shakspeare, in his
comedy of "Much Ado about Nothing," act i. makes Benedicke confirm his resolves
of not yielding to love, by this protestation, "If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat,[1]
and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the shoulder, and called
Adam:" meaningAdam Bell, as Theobald rightly observes, who refers to one or two
other passages in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford Editor has also
well conjectured, that "Abraham Cupid" inRomeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. i. should be
"AdamCupid," in allusion to our archer. Ben Jonson has mentionedClym o' the
Cloughin hisAlchemist, act i. sc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of
his, calledThe long vacation in London, describes the attorneys and proctors as
making matches to meet in Finsbury fields.
With loynes in canvas bow-case tyde:[2]
Where arrowes stick with mickle pride;....
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme.
Sol sets for fear they'l shoot at him."
Works, 1673, fol. p. 291.
I have only to add further concerning the principal hero of this ballad, that the
Bells were noted rogues in the north so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth. See in
Rymer'sFoedera, a letter from Lord William Howard to some of the officers of state,
wherein he mentions them.
As for the following stanzas, which will be judged from the style,
orthography, and numbers, to be of considerable antiquity, they were here given
(corrected in some places by a MS. copy in the Editor's old folio) from a black-letter
Quarto.Imprinted at London in Lothbury by Wyllyam Copland(no date). That old
quarto edition seems to be exactly followed in "Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, &c.