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The Ballad History of the Reigns of the Later Tudors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

C. H. Firth
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Extract

Ballads about events which happened during the reigns of the later Tudors are far more numerous than those which relate to the reigns of their predecessors. They fall naturally into three classes. There are a few traditional ballads, probably handed down by word of mouth, committed to writing much later, and generally not printed till the eighteenth or nineteenth century. The authors of these are unknown; in the shape in which we possess them they may be the work of more than one hand; in many cases it is certain that they have been pieced together and reshaped by modern editors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 3 , December 1909 , pp. 51 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1909

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References

page 51 note 1 See ‘The Ballad History of the Reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.’ Transactions, Third Series, ii. 21.Google Scholar

page 52 note 1 Strype, , Memorials, II. ii. 329.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 ‘Musselboorowe Ffeild,’ Hales, and Furnivall, , i. 125Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 378.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 ‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei,’ Ballads from MSS., i. 108Google Scholar (Ballad Society); Dyce, 's Skelton, ii. 400Google Scholar; Hazlitt, 's Early Popular Poetry, iii. 268.Google Scholar

page 54 note 2 Balloas from MSS. i. 139.Google Scholar The ballad of ‘Little John Nobody’ printed in Percy, 's Reliques (p. 346, ed. Schroer) makes a similar complaint.Google Scholar

page 54 note 3 Ibid. i. 145 The economic and social evils from which England suffered are set forth at length in Dr. Furnivall's preface to this collection ot ballads. See also ProfessorCheyney, E. P.'s excellent little book Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century as reflected in Contemporary Literature. Boston, 1895Google Scholar (Publications of the University of Pennsylvania).

page 55 note 1 Froude, , iv. 442Google Scholar; Strype, , Memorials, II. ii. 425Google Scholar; Rye, , Depositions before the Mayor and Aldermen of Norwich, p. 22 (Norfolk Archaeological Society, 1905).Google Scholar

page 55 note 2 Dixon, , History of the English Church, iii. 92Google Scholar; Strype, , Memorials, III. ii. 427Google Scholar; Stow, 's Chronicle, p. 597Google Scholar; Holinshed, , ii. 1038.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 See Herford, , Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century (1886), pp. 49–68.Google Scholar

page 56 note 2 Reliques, ed. Schroer, , p. 339.Google Scholar This is the earliest printed ballad in the Pepys collection.

page 56 note 3 Hazlitt, W. C., Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England (1866), iv. 1Google Scholar; Tudor Tracts, p. 159.Google Scholar Its author was one Luke Shepherd.

page 56 note 4 Ibid. iii. 240.

page 57 note 1 See Maitland, , Essays on the Reformation in England, ed. 1849, pp. 293, 296, 299Google Scholar; and Dixon, , History of the Church of England, iii. 123Google Scholar; Herford, , p. 50.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 Printed in Songs and Ballads chiefly of the Reign of Philip and Mary, ed. by Wright, Thomas (1860), p. 12.Google Scholar See also Elderton's Lenten Staff (ibid., p. 188), a later ballad on the same subject.

page 57 note 3 Printed in Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park, , x. 256Google Scholar, from the original in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. See Lemon, Robert's Catalogue of Broadsides belonging to that Society (1866), p. 6.Google Scholar There was a ballad epitaph on Gardiner and a reply to it in just the same style, Nugœ Antiquœ, ii. 72.Google Scholar ‘The Saints in heaven rejoice’ to add Gardiner to their numbers, says the epitaph. ‘The devils in hell do dance,’ says the reply.

page 58 note 1 Nugœ Antiquœ, ed. Park, , ii. 328.Google Scholar

page 58 note 2 The Crown Garland of Golden Roses (1612), p. 73 (Percy Society).Google Scholar

page 58 note 3 Ballads from MSS. i. 310Google Scholar; Puttenham, , Arte of English Poesie, p. 32, ed. Arber.Google Scholar

page 58 note 4 See ‘Early Tudor Ballads’ in the Transactions, 3rd Series, vol. ii.Google Scholar

page 58 note 5 Gray's New Years Gifts to Somerset (1550 and 1551), Ballads from MSS. i 414–25, 435.Google Scholar

page 58 note 6 See Tytler, , England under the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, i. 224, 273Google Scholar; ii. 19. Burnet, , History of the Reformation, ii. 260, ed. Pocock.Google Scholar

page 59 note 1 Collier, , Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies (Percy Society, 1840), p. 17.Google Scholar

page 60 note 1 A facsimile of this ballad is given at the end of the Narrative of Antonio de Guaras, ed. by Garnett, R., 1892.Google Scholar No doubt ‘furlowe’ is a misprint for ‘full low.’

page 61 note 1 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, i. 152, 209.Google Scholar Collier in his note on this passage says the ballad has been preserved, ‘and is quoted below from a MS. written at least fifty years after the event, in the possession of the editor.’ But Collier's version is a fraud of the most barefaced character, written in a bad imitation of sixteenth-century English, and trite and trivial in expression. The genuine ballad was discovered by Henry Bradshaw in the library at Longleat, and printed by Dr. Fumivall for the Ballad Society about 1870. See Collier, , Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company (1848), i. 72Google Scholar; Ballads fiom MSS.. 426 (Ballad Society).Google Scholar

page 63 note 1 Harleian Miscellany, x. 253.Google Scholar There is also ‘A Godly Psalm of Mary Queen,’ by Richard Beeard, which is printed in MrHuth, 's Fugitive Tracts written in verse, vol. i. (privately printed in 1875).Google Scholar

page 63 note 2 Ballads from MSS., i. 431.Google Scholar

page 63 note 3 Harleian Miscellany, x. 255.Google Scholar

page 64 note 1 Rye, , Depositions before the Mayor and Aldermen of Norwich, 1549–1567. (Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, 1905), p. 55.Google Scholar

page 65 note 1 Narratives of the Reformation, p. 140 (ed. by Nichols, J. G., Camden Society, 1859).Google Scholar

page 65 note 2 Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, III. i. 132.Google Scholar

page 65 note 3 Rye, , Depositions before the Mayor and Aldermen of Norwich (Norfolk Archaeological Society), p. 57.Google Scholar

page 66 note 1 Maitland, , Essays, pp. 110, 158Google Scholar; Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, III. ii. 339Google Scholar; Dyce, , Skelton, i. cxvii.Google Scholar The letter is said to have been printed in 1555.

page 66 note 2 See an article on The Pepysian Treasures, printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 04 1906Google Scholar, and Froude, , History of England, v. 517.Google Scholar

page 67 note 1 Acts and Memorials, ed. Townsend, and Cattley, , 1838, vii. 356.Google Scholar

page 67 note 2 Printed in Deloney, 's Strange Histories, 1607Google Scholar, and to be found also in Rox-burghe Baliads, i. 287.Google Scholar

page 67 note 3 Anne Askew was burnt in July 1546. Bale, Bishop in ‘The Lattre Examination of Anne Askewe,’ preserves what he terms ‘The Balade whych Anne Askewe made and sang whan she was in Newgate.’Google Scholar It begins:-

Lyke as the armed knight

Appoynted to the fielde,

With this world wyll I fight,

And fayth shall be my shielde.

This is reprinted by MrChappell, in Roxburghe Ballads, i. 30Google Scholar, and he also reprints there the later ballad entitled ‘An Askew,’ which is referred to above. This begins:-

I am a woman poor and blind,

And little knowledge remains in me.

The copies of this ballad now extant, were all printed in the latter part of the seventeenth century. See Crawford, Lord's Catalogue of Ballads, p. 203.Google Scholar

page 68 note 1 Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, III. ii. 102, 132.Google ScholarMaitland, , p. 114.Google Scholar Goodman's pamphlet was pnblished in 1557. Many others of the same character are quoted at length by Maitland.

page 69 note 1 Froude, , History of England, vi. 5Google Scholar, referring apparently to the confession of Daniel, John: MS. Mary, Domestic, vol. viii.Google Scholar

page 69 note 2 Ibid. vi. 44.

page 69 note 3 Printed in Harleian Miscellany, x. 257Google Scholar. Stafford's proclamation is printed by Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, III. ii. 515Google Scholar; and by Maitland, , p. 154Google Scholar. John Bradford, above mentioned, was taken prisoner with Stafford and suffered with him.

page 69 note 4 de Lincy, Le Roux, Recueil des Chants Historiques Français (1842), ii. 211.Google Scholar

page 70 note 1 Collier, in his Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company (i. 22)Google Scholar gives the title, but does not say where the ballad is to be found. See Arber, , Registers, i. 101.Google Scholar

page 70 note 2 ‘An epitaphe upon the death of the most excellent and our late vertuous Quene Marie, deceased.’ Harleian Miscellany, x. 259Google Scholar.

page 70 note 3 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, i. 101Google Scholar; Collier, , Extracts, i. 21Google Scholar.

page 70 note 4 Oceana, ed. Morley, H., p. 60Google Scholar.

page 70 note 5 Printed in Harleian Miscellany, x. 260.Google Scholar See Arber, , Registers, i. 9Google ScholarCollier, , Extracts from the Stationers' Registers, i. 19, 97.Google Scholar

page 71 note 1 III. vi. 26.

page 72 note 1 Reprinted in Arber, 's English Garner, iv. 143Google Scholar, and in Tudor Tracts, ed. by Pollard, A. F. (1903), p. 259Google Scholar. See also Arber, , Registers, i. 101.Google Scholar

page 72 note 2 Printed in Collier, J. P.'s Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies, p. 28. (Percy Society, 1840).Google Scholar

page 72 note 3 Lilly, Joseph, Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, p. 94.Google Scholar

page 73 note 1 ‘A Newe ballad,’ by R. M. (ib. p. 30).

page 73 note 2 Arber, , i. 202Google Scholar; Collier, , Extracts, i. 62.Google Scholar

page 73 note 3 Arber, , i. 208.Google Scholar

page 73 note 4 Ibid. i. 209.

page 73 note 5 Ibid. i. 203; Collier, , Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies, p. 41.Google Scholar Strangways was killed in a skirmish at Caudebec about September 1562. Froude, , vi. 584.Google Scholar

page 74 note 1 Arber, , i. 215.Google Scholar The ballad is printed in Collier, 's Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies, p. 72.Google Scholar

page 74 note 2 Arber, , i. 263.Google Scholar

page 75 note 1 Songs and Ballads chiefly of the reign of Philip and Mary edited from a manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum, by Wright, Thomas, 1860, p. 213–4.Google Scholar There are four verses of this ballad on Florida embedded in a ballad on the delights of spring, where they seem entirely out of place. The manuscript throws no light on the question how the two subjects came to be combined in this way.

page 76 note 1 The best collection is Satirical Poems of the Time of the Reformation, ed. by Cranstoun, James for the Scottish Text Society in four parts, 1889–1893Google Scholar. An earlier edition is The Sempill Ballates, ed. by Stevenson, T. G., Edinburgh, 1872.Google Scholar

page 76 note 2 Froude, , History of England, viii. 163; ix. 204.Google Scholar

page 76 note 3 Arber, , i. 411Google Scholar; see Cranstoun, , i. 100, 108Google Scholar; Roxburghe Ballads, viii. 359.Google Scholar

page 76 note 4 There is a manuscript ballad, written about December 1568, defending the Queen of Scots against the Earl of Murray, denouncing him as ‘a perfect pattern of deceit,’ and ‘trained up in the school of Satan,’ which alleges that Murray killed Darnley in order to ruin Mary. Cranstoun, , i. 68.Google Scholar

page 78 note 1 Hales, and Furnivall, , ii. 260Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 399Google Scholar; Percy, 's Reliques, i. 393 (ed. Schroer).Google Scholar Percy entitled it ‘The Murder of the King of Scots.’

page 78 note 2 Lang, , History of Scotland, ii. 176Google Scholar; Fleming, Hay, Mary Queen of Scots, P. 437.Google Scholar

page 78 note 3 The ballad is entered in the register thus: ‘24 March [1579] Thomas Gosson. Receaved of him for a ballad concerninge the murder of the late kinge of Scottes.’ But instead of an entry of the receipt of the fourpence which was the usual charge for ballads, there is a blank left in the register. Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 349.Google Scholar Collier observes ‘as no sum was paid by Gosson it is possible that the licence was witheld or delayed on account of the subject of the ballad.’ Extracts from the Stationers' Register, ii. 83.Google Scholar H. C., the author of the ‘Doleful Ditty,’ is supposed, on very doubtful evidence, to be Henry Chettle.

page 79 note 1 There are also two new incidents—a warning given to Darnley by his page, and a verse on the grief of Mary at the murder. The ‘Doleful Ditty’ is/printed in vol. x. p. 264Google Scholar of the Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park. The original is in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides, p. 19Google Scholar.

page 79 note 2 Stow, , Annals, ed. 1631, p. 660.Google Scholar

page 80 note 1 Lilly, , Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, p. 56Google Scholar

page 80 note 2 ‘A ballad rejoysinge the sodaine fall. Of rebels that thought to devour us all.’—Lilly, , pp. 266–70.Google Scholar

page 81 note 1 Lilly, , Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, p. 267.Google Scholar

page 81 note 2 ‘Joyfull Newe for true Subjects to God and the Crowne,’ Lilly, , p. 231.Google Scholar

page 81 note 3 A ballad entitled ‘A new Well a daye,’ Lilly, , p. IGoogle Scholar. See also Sharpe, , Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, pp. 123, 133, 188.Google Scholar

page 81 note 4 ‘Newes from Northumberland,’ by Elderton, W.Google Scholar. Printed in Harleian Miscellany, x. 267.Google Scholar

page 82 note 1 A new Ballade, intituled, Agaynst Rebellion and false rumours,’ Lilly, , p. 239.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 Hales, and Furnivall, , ii. 210Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 401Google Scholar; Percy, 's Reliques, ed. Schroer, i. 190.Google Scholar

page 85 note 1 The best discussion of the historical bearing of the ballad is in Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, iii. 401Google Scholar; see also Hales, and Furnivall, , ii. 210.Google Scholar An account of the Norton family is given by Sharpe, , Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, p. 275.Google Scholar A ballad entitled ‘The severall confessions of Thomas Norton and Christopher Norton,’ was licensed in 1570, and another called ‘A Description of Nortons in Yorkshire.’ Arber, , i. 414–5.Google Scholar

page 86 note 1 ‘The Earl of Westmoreland,’ Hales, and Furnivall, , i. 292Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 416Google Scholar; cf. Sharpe, , Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, pp. 289–304.Google Scholar

page 86 note 2 Child, , iii. 408Google Scholar; Hales, and Furnivall, , ii. 217Google Scholar; Sharpe, , p. 125.Google Scholar

page 86 note 3 ‘The Copie of a ryme made by one Singleton, a gentleman of Lancashire, now prisoner at York for religion.’ Wright, , Queen Elizabeth and her Times, i. 432.Google Scholar

page 87 note 1 ‘Ane Exclamation maid in England upone the delyverance of the Erle of Northumberland.’ Cranstoun, , i. 240Google Scholar (from a Scottish MS., though written by an Englishman).

page 88 note 1 ‘The Dekaye of the Duke,’ Harleian Miscellany, x. 270.Google Scholar

page 89 note 1 Collier, , Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies, p. 68Google Scholar; Arber, , Registers, i. 405.Google Scholar

page 89 note 2 The Bull is printed at length by Camden, , Annals, ed. 1630, bk. ii. p. 7.Google Scholar

page 89 note 3 ‘The braineles blessing of the Bull’ Lilly, , A Collection of Seventy Nine Black-Utter Ballads, p. 224Google Scholar; cf. Arber, , i. 436.Google Scholar

page 90 note 1 Collier, J. P., Old Ballads from Early Printed Copies (1840), p. 65.Google Scholar The original is in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. See also Arber, , i. 437.Google Scholar

page 90 note 2 Lilly, p. 33Google Scholar; Arber, , i. 438.Google Scholar

page 91 note 1 ‘Declaration of the Life and Death of John Story’ (1571)Google Scholar, in Phœnix Britannicus (1732), p. 293.Google Scholar A ballad called ‘The welcome home of Dr. Story’ was licensed in 1576, Arber, , i. 440, 443.Google Scholar See also Camden, , ii. 30.Google Scholar

page 91 note 2 A lost ballad entitled ‘Mr. Campion the seditious Jesuit, his welcome to London,’ was licensed on 07 24, 1581Google Scholar. Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 397.Google Scholar

page 91 note 3 Ballads from Manuscripts, ii. 164.Google Scholar

page 92 note 1 Ballads from Manuscripts, pp. 157–194.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Ibid., ii. 177–8.

page 93 note 1 Broadside Blackletter Ballads, printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, chiefly in the possession of Collier, J. Payne (1868), p. 21.Google Scholar

page 93 note 2 Ibid. p. 36.

page 93 note 3 ‘A Short Discourse expressing the substaunce of all the late pretended Treasons, &c.’ by Nelson, Thomas. Fugitive Tracts written in Verse (from the library of H. Huth), 1875, vol. i.Google Scholar This volume also contains three other collections of verses: ‘Verses of Prayse and Joye written upon her Majesties preservation,’ 1586Google Scholar; ‘Certaine Englishe Verses presented unto the Queen's most excellent Majestic,’ by a Courtier, 1586Google Scholar; and ‘A dutiful Invective against the moste haynous Treasons of Ballard and Babington … set foorth in English verse for a New-yeares gifte to all loyall English subjects,’ by Kempe, W., 1587Google Scholar. See also ‘The Complaynte of Anthony Babington,’ in A Poore Mans Pittance by Williams, Richard. Ballads from Manuscripts, ii. 5.Google Scholar

page 94 note 1 Stow, 's Chronicle, ed. 1631, p. 728.Google Scholar

page 94 note 2 Ibid. p. 750. ‘A Warning to all false Traitors.’ Collier, , Broadside Black-letter Ballads, p. 57.Google Scholar

page 94 note 3 Printed in Puttenham, 's Art of Poetry, 1589, p. 208Google Scholar; cf. Hannah, , Court Poets, p. 136Google Scholar.

page 95 note 1 Hake, Edward's ‘A Commemoration of the most prosperous and peaceable reign of our.… Soveraign Lady Elizabeth,’ 1575Google Scholar. Harleian Miscellany, ix. 127.Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 By I. Pitt, minister. Printed by Collier, , Broadside Black-letter Ballads, p. 16.Google Scholar

page 95 note 3 Lilly, , Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, p. 182.Google Scholar

page 95 note 4 Harleian Miscellany, x. 278.Google Scholar

page 96 note 1 ‘A newe ballad declaryng the daungerous shootyng of the gunne at the Courte,’ Harleian Miscellany, x. 272.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 Lilly, , p. 37Google Scholar; Cranstoun, , Satirical Poems of the Time of the Reformation, p. 257Google Scholar; Stevenson, T. G., The Sempill Ballates, 1872.Google Scholar

page 97 note 2 Printed in Roxburghe Ballads, i. 35Google Scholar (from a copy published in the reign of Charles II). See Collier, , Extracts, ii. 199, 213Google Scholar; Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 450, 454.Google Scholar The original seems to have been licensed August 1, 1586.

page 97 note 3 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 308, 313Google Scholar; Collier, , Extracts, ii. 29, 41.Google Scholar

page 98 note 1 Collier, J. P., Old Ballads from. Early Printed Copies, p. 89.Google Scholar

page 98 note 2 Arber, , ii. 347Google Scholar; iii. 182. The second ballad was entered April 12, 1601. See also Froude, , x. 477.Google Scholar

page 98 note 3 Roxburghe Ballads, vii. 575.Google ScholarSimpson, R., The School of Shakespeare 1878, i. 144.Google Scholar

page 99 note 1 Collier, , Extracts, ii. 96, 133, 136Google Scholar; Arber, , Registers, ii. 359, 384, 385Google Scholar; Froude, , x. 555, 589.Google Scholar

page 99 note 2 Collier, , Extracts, ii. 180Google Scholar; Arber, , Registers, ii. 424Google Scholar; Froude, , x. 615Google Scholar. Derrick, John's ‘Image of Ireland,’ printed in 1581Google Scholar, deserves mention here. It is not properly a ballad, but a very lengthy narrative and descriptive poem, written in ballad metre, and reprinted in Scott's edition of the Somers Tracts, i. 558.Google Scholar Since none of the ballads mentioned above now survive, it has a special value as illustrating the popular conception of the Irish in England.

page 100 note 1 Harleian Miscellany, x. 266Google Scholar; Percy MS., ed. Hales, and Furnivall, , ii. 265.Google Scholar The ballad was licensed May 30, 1581. Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 393.Google Scholar

page 101 note 1 The Percy MS., Hales, and Furnivall, , i. 135.Google Scholar The editorial note suggests that the Earl of Morton was the original of the villainous nobleman.

page 101 note 2 ‘Neshe,’ i.e. tender.

page 101 note 3 Arber, , Registers, ii. 464.Google Scholar

page 102 note 1 The following is a list of the Armada ballads licensed. Those which still exist are printed in italics. The dates are those given in the Stationers' Registers, ii. 493–508.Google Scholar

June 29. A Dittie of Encouragement to Englishmen to be bold to fight in defence of prince and country.

July 9. A ballad of Encouragement to English soldiers valiantly to behave themselves in defence of the true religion and their country.

Aug. 3. An excellent new song of prayer and prowess.

Aug. 3. A joyful sonnet of the readiness of the shires and nobility of England to do her Majesties service.

Aug. 10. A ballad of the obtaining of the Galeazzo wherein Don Pedro de Valdez was chief.

Aug. 10. The Queens visiting the camp at Tilbury and her entertainment there the 8 and 9 of August.

Aug. 10. A joyful song of the royal receiving of the Queen's Majesty into her camp at Tilbury.

Aug. 18. A ballad entitled the English preparation of the Spaniards Navigation.

Aug. 23. An excellent Song of the breaking up of the Camp.

Aug. 28. A proper new ballad briefly showing the honourable companies of horsemen and footmen which divers nobles of England brought before her Majesty.

Aug. 31. A ballad of the strange whips which the Spaniards had prepared for the English men and women.

Sep. 7. The Martial Shows of horsemen before her Majesty at St. James.

Sep. 28. A ballad entitled ‘The late wonderful Distress which the Spanish Navy sustaned in the late fight at sea and upon the west coast of Ireland.’

Sep. 30. A ballad entitled of the valiant deeds of Mac Cab an Irishman.

Oct. 7. A ballad of thanksgiving to God for his mercy towards her Majesty.

Nov. 3. A new ballad of the glorious victory of Christ Jesus as was late seen by the overthrow of the Spaniards.

Nov. 3. A ballad of the most happy victory obtained over the Spaniards and their overthrow in July last.

Nov. 14. A joyful ballad of the royal entrance of Queen Elizabeth into her city of London.… and of the solemnity used by her majesty to the glory of God for the wonderful overthrow of the Spaniards.

Nov. 14. A Ditty of the exploit of the Earl of Cumberland on the sea in October 1588 and of the overthrow of 1600 Spaniards in Ireland.

Nov. 21. A new ballad of Englands joy and delight in the back rebound of the Spaniards spite.

Nov. 25. A joyful song or sonnet of the royal receiving of the Queen's majesty into the city of London, on Sunday the 24 of November.

Nov. 26. An excellent Ditty of the Queens coming to Paul's Cross the 24th day of November.

Nov. 27. The joyful Triumphs performed by divers Christian princes beyond the seas for the happiness of England and the overthrow of the Spanish Navy.

One may also add ‘A Skeltonicall Salutation.… of the Spanish Nation’ published in 1589, of which a long extract is given in Dyce, 's Skelton I., cxxvi.Google Scholar

page 103 note 1 All these are reprinted in Tudoi Tracts, p. 485Google Scholar, and in Roxburghe Ballads, vol. vi. pp. 384, 387, 390.Google Scholar

page 103 note 2 ‘The obtaining of the Great Galleazzo.’ Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 384.Google Scholar

page 104 note 1 ‘A new ballet of the strange and most cruel Whips.’ Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 387.Google Scholar

page 104 note 2 Stow, 's Chronicle, p. 744.Google Scholar

page 104 note 3 ‘A Joyful Song,’ &c. Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 393.Google Scholar

page 105 note 1 ‘The Queene's visitingl of the Campe at Tilsburie.’ Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 390.Google Scholar

page 106 note 1 Goodman, , Court of King James I. i, 163.Google Scholar

page 106 note 2 Arber, , ii. Registers, 501.Google Scholar

page 107 note 1 Froude, , xii. 452.Google Scholar

page 107 note 2 See Naval Songs and Ballads, ed. by Firth, C. H., preface, pp. xiv–xx. (Navy Records Society, 1908)Google Scholar, for a collection of these titles.

page 108 note 1 Printed in Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 402Google Scholar; in Naval Songs and Ballads, p. 21 (Navy Records Society, 1908)Google Scholar, and in many other collections. Apparently it originally appeared in Deloney, 's Garland of Goodwill, which was published in 1596Google Scholar. There appear to be no broadside copies of it in existence.

page 108 note 2 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, ii. 482, 530, 534, 540, 543, 546, 547, 556, 561, 591, 595, 623, 664, 666.Google Scholar

page 108 note 3 Shirburn Ballads, p. 240Google Scholar; cf. Corbett, , Successors of Drake, p. 37.Google Scholar

page 108 note 4 Ibid. p. 272.

page 109 note 1 British Museum, 806 K. 16 (58). The battle was on July 2, new style. The ballad is reprinted in the Appendix to this paper.

page 109 note 2 Hales, and Furnivall, , i. 515Google Scholar; Bagford Ballads, i. 308Google Scholar; Crawford, Lord's Catalogue of Ballads, p. 466.Google Scholar The earliest printed version of the ballad now extant was published during the reign of Charles II. Percy's MS. contained a version of it, but one so obviously corrupt that he preferred to follow a broadside in the Pepys collection.

page 110 note 1 Roxburghe Ballads, iv. 4Google Scholar; Crawford, Lord's Catalogue, p. 148Google Scholar; Percy's Reliques.

page 110 note 2 It is not entered in the Stationers' Registers, but the latter contains hardly any ballads between the end of 1624 and the beginning of 1629.

page 110 note 3 The month in which the battle took place is given as July, the site of the battle is on the seashore, the number of English soldiers engaged is 1500. These three points all suggest the battle of Nieuport. The sixteenth verse of News from Nieuport' seems to have suggested the ninth verse of ‘Lord Willoughby.’

page 111 note 1 Dalton, , Life of Sir Edward Cecil, ii. 63, 65, 68, 81, 262, 270, 286.Google Scholar

page 111 note 2 Arber, , Registers, ii. 548, 549, 563.Google Scholar

page 112 note 1 Maidment, 's Scottish Ballads and Songs (1868), i. 143Google Scholar; Scott, , Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. Henderson, ii. 18.Google Scholar It was originally printed by Ramsay, Allan in his Evergreen in 1724Google Scholar.

page 112 note 2 Maidment, , i. 153Google Scholar; Scott, , ii. 39Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 469Google Scholar; Hatfield MSS. vi. 85, 228, 339.

page 112 note 3 ‘Dick of the Cow, that mad demilance northern borderer, who played his prizes with the lord Jockey so bravely,’ is mentioned in Nashe, 's ‘Have with you to Saffron Walden,’ which was published in 1596Google Scholar. For the ballad see Scott, 's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. Henderson, ii. 71Google Scholar; and Child, , iii. 461.Google Scholar

Scott, , ii. 130Google Scholar; Child, , iii. 439.Google Scholar It was taken down by Ritson in 1785, and published in his Bishopric Garland.

page 113 note 1 On September 3, 1580, there was licensed ‘A ballad of a Raide made into Liddesdale by certen English gentlemen of the phenix (i.e. Fenwicks) and others, against the Ellyottes for deadly fead, the original whereof began by the Elliottes being Scottes at Kyrke harle in Scotland for lyeres past.’ Arber, , ii. 377Google Scholar; cf. Ridpath, Border History, p. 661.Google Scholar

page 113 note 2 Printed in the Scottish Historical Review for July 1908 from Ashmole's MSS.

page 114 note 1 ‘Phœnix’ and ‘Annix’ in the original.

page 114 note 2 There are two versions of this ballad. (i) ‘A lamentable ditty for the death of a worthy gentleman named George Stoole,’ &c., quoted above. (2) ‘The Life and Death of George of Oxford,’ apparently a late and very corrupt version of the same. Both are printed by Child, , iv. 140Google Scholar, as an appendix to a ballad with which they have no connexion. Both are also to be found in the Roxburghe Ballads, i. 577Google Scholar; vii. 70, and the first is in Ritson's Northumbrian Garland, too. The ballad first appears in the Stationers' Registers as transferred on June 1, 1629, and is evidently much older. Arber, , iv. 231Google Scholar. Ritson thinks it should be dated about 1610. Nothing is known of the George Stoole mentioned in the title of the first ballad. The reason for attributing it to Gary's period is that in 1598, when he became Warden of the Middle March, he made Sir Henry Widdrington and Sir William Fenwick his deputies. He began his operations by executing ‘two gentlemen thieves that robbed and took purses from travellers in the highways,’ who were both hanged at Newcastle. The hero of the ballad may have been one of these two, whose names have not been preserved. On the other hand, the ballad may refer to ‘a great thief called Geordie Bourne,’ whom Carey executed in 1596, when he was Deputy Warden of the East Marches. Great efforts were made to save this famous man. Memoirs of Robert Carey, ed. 1808, pp. 70, 94, 96.Google ScholarCalendar of Border Papers, ii. 188–9, 191.Google Scholar

page 115 note 1 Arber, , Registers, iii. 49Google Scholar; Churchyard's ‘Fortunate Farewell to the Earl of Essex,’ written on the same occasion, is reprinted in Nichols, 's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii. ed. 1788.Google Scholar

page 115 note 2 Shirburn Ballads, p. 321.Google Scholar

page 115 note 3 Printed in Skirburn Ballads, p. 124Google Scholar, and in Roxburghe Ballads, viii. p. xi.Google Scholar

page 116 note 1 There are a couple of sonnets which may with some probability be attributed to Essex himself. Those beginning ‘Happy were he could finish forth his fate’ and ‘The ways on earth have paths and turnings known.’ See Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 404Google Scholar; Ballads from MSS., ii. 251Google Scholar; Hannah, , Poems of Sir W. Raleigh, &c. ed. 1875, p. 177Google Scholar.

page 116 note 2 Printed in Roxburghe Ballads, i. 571Google Scholar; Shirburn Ballads, p. 328Google Scholar; Old Ballads (1723–1725), iii. 118.Google Scholar

page 117 note 1 Roxburghe Ballads, i. 564Google Scholar; Old Ballads (1723–1725), iii. 107.Google Scholar

page 117 note 2 Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 405.Google Scholar It was reprinted in A Collection of Old Ballads (1723), i. 195.Google Scholar I take the ballad to have been written about 1625, at the time of the expedition to Cadiz, not in 1597, as Mr. Ebsworth suggests. Verses 7 and 9 clearly refer to the third Earl.

page 118 note 1 Shirburn Ballads, p. 177.Google Scholar See also ‘A proper new ballade wherein is plaine to be seene how God blesseth England for love of our Queene’ (after (588), Ballads from MSS., ii. 92.Google Scholar

page 118 note 2 The Court of King James I, by DrGoodman, Godfrey, i. 96–8.Google Scholar

page 118 note 3 Ballads from MSS. ii. 130, 137.Google Scholar

page 118 note 4 See Roxburghe Ballads, iv. 219Google Scholar; Scott, 's Dryden, vi. 222Google Scholar; Dryden's Prologue to Southern's Loyal Brother.

page 119 note 1 See Roxburghe Ballads, iv. 329, 334Google Scholar; Political Merriment (1714), part ii. pp. 128, 207Google Scholar; Swift's Journal to Stella, 11 17, 1711.Google Scholar

page 119 note 2 ‘The Life and Death of Queen Elizabeth.’ A Collection of Old Ballads (1723–1725) pp. iii. 122.Google Scholar This originally appeared in Johnson, Richard's Crown. Garden of Golden Roses in 1612 (Percy Society Reprint, p. 39)Google Scholar. A later seventeenth-century ballad ‘Upon the Death of Queen Elizabeth,’ beginning ‘I tell ye all, both great and small,’ is printed in Ballads from MSS., ii. 98.Google Scholar It appeared first in Choice Drollery in 1656 (p. 68 of Ebsworth's reprint)Google Scholar. There is also ‘a joyful song of the deserved praises of good Queen Elizabeth, how princely she behaved herself at Tilbury camp,’ &c., in A Collection of Old Ballads, iii. 99.Google Scholar