"To John Kynge, to prynte this boke called Adam Bell, &c., and for his lycense he geveth to the howse"-- What sum he gave is not stated. Again, we meet with another notice of it in the same registers, under the date of 1581-2, when John Charlwood was interested in the undertaking. I mention these two entries principally because neither Ritson nor Percy were acquainted with them; but they may be seen among the extracts published by the Shakspeare Society in 1848 and 1849. {446} No impressions by Kynge or Charlwood having come down to us, we have no means of knowing whether they availed themselves of the permission granted at Stationers' Hall; and, unless I am deceived, the fragment which occasions this Note is not from the presses of either of them, and is of an earlier date than the time of Copland; the type is much better, and less battered, than that of Copland; at the same time it has a more antique look, and in several respects, which I am about to point out, it furnishes a better text than that given by Ritson from Copland's edition, or by Percy with the aid of his folio manuscript. I am sorry to say that it only consists of a single sheet; but this is nearly half the production, and it comprises the whole of the second, and two pages of the third "fit." The first line and the last of the portion in my hands, testify to the greater antiquity and purity of the text there found; it begins-- "These gates be shut so wonderly well;" and it ends, "Tyll they came to the kynge's palays." It is "_wonderous_ well" in Copland's impression, and palace is there spelt "pallace," a more modern form of the word than _palays_. Just afterwards we have, in my fragment, "Streyght comen from oure kyng," instead of Copland's "Streyght _come nowe_ from our king." _Comen_ is considerably more ancient than "come nowe;" so that, without pursuing this point farther, I may say that my fragment is not only an older specimen of typography than Copland's impression, but older still in its words and phraseology, a circumstance that communicates to it additional interest. I subjoin a few various readings, most, if not all, of them presenting a superior text than is to be met with elsewhere. Speaking of the porter at the gate of Carlisle, we are told-- "And to the gate faste he throng." Copland's edition omits _faste_, and it is not met with in Percy. In another place a rhyme is lost by an awkward transposition, "he saide" for _sayd he_; and farther on, in Copland's text, we have mention of "The justice with a quest of squyers." instead of "a quest of _swerers_," meaning of course the jury who had condemned Cloudesly "there hanged to be." Another blunder committed by Copland is the omission of a word, so that a line is left without its corresponding rhyme: "Then Clowdysle cast hys eyen aside, And sawe his two bretheren _stande_ At the corner of the market-place, With theyr good bowes bent in theyr hand."