Thus in great merriment was the time wholly spent, And then the ladyes prepared to dance: Old Sir John Cockle, and Richard, incontinent 105 Unto their places the king did advance. Here with the ladyes such sport they did make, The nobles with laughing did make their sides ake. Many thankes for their paines did the king give them, Asking young Richard then, if he would wed; 110 "Among these ladyes free, tell me which liketh thee?" Quoth he, "Jugg Grumball, Sir, with the red head, She's my love, she's my life, her will I wed; She hath sworn I shall have her maidenhead." Then Sir John Cockle the king call'd unto him, 115 And of merry Sherwood made him o'erseer, And gave him out of hand three hundred pound yearlye: "Take heed now you steele no more of my deer; And once a quarter let's here have your view; And now, Sir John Cockle, I bid you adieu." 120 57. for good hap: i. e. for good luck; they were going on a hazardous expedition. P. 60. Maid Marian in the Morris dance, was represented by a man in woman's clothes, who was to take short steps in order to sustain the female character. P. GERNUTUS THE JEW OF VENICE. Percy's _Reliques_, i. 224. In Douce's _Illustrations of Shakespeare_, (i. 278,) and Malone's _Shakespeare_, (v. 3, 154, ed. 1821,) we are referred to a great many stories resembling that of the present ballad. Two or three of these are found in the Persian, and there can be no doubt that the original tale is of eastern invention. The oldest European forms of the story are in the _Gesta Romanorum_, (Wright's _Latin Stories_, Percy Soc. viii. 114, Madden's _Old English Versions_, p. 130,) the French romance of _Dolopathos_ (v. 7096, _et seq._), and the _Pecorone_ of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, written in 1378, but not printed till 1558.