known more widely, is probably not older than the time of James I.,
and is the version praised by Addison in Nos. 70 and 74 of "The
Spectator."

"The Nut-Brown Maid," in which we can hardly doubt that a woman pleads
for women, was first printed in 1502 in Richard Arnold's Chronicle.
Nut-brown was the old word for brunette. There was an old saying that
"a nut-brown girl is neat and blithe by nature."

"Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslie" was first
printed by Copland about 1550. A fragment has been found of an
earlier impression. Laneham, in 1575, in his Kenilworth Letter,
included "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudeslie"
among the light reading of Captain Cox. In the books of the
Stationers' Company (for the printing and editing of which we are
deeply indebted to Professor Arber), there is an entry between July
1557 and July 1558, "To John kynge to prynte this boke Called Adam
Bell etc. and for his lycense he giveth to the howse." On the 15th of
January 1581-2 "Adam Bell" is included in a list of forty or more
copyrights transferred from Sampson Awdeley to John Charlewood; "A
Hundred Merry Tales" and Gower's "Confessio Amantis" being among the
other transfers. On the 16th of August 1586 the Company of Stationers
"Alowed vnto Edward white for his copies these fyve ballades so that
they be tollerable:" four only are named, one being "A ballad of
William Clowdisley, never printed before." Drayton wrote in the
"Shepheard's Garland" in 1593:--

"Come sit we down under this hawthorn tree,
The morrow's light shall lend us day enough--
And tell a tale of Gawain or Sir Guy,