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,
Of Robin Hood, or of good Clem of the Clough."
Ben Jonson, in his "Alchemist," acted in 1610, also indicates the
current popularity of this tale, when Face, the housekeeper, brings
Dapper, the lawyer's clerk, to Subtle, and recommends him with--
"'slight, I bring you
No cheating Clim o' the Clough or Claribel."
"Binnorie," or "The Two Sisters," is a ballad on an old theme popular
in Scandinavia as well as in this country.
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