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The Ballad History of the Reign of James I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

A very large number of ballads written during the reign of James I have been preserved in various collections, though the dates of these productions are often obscured by the fact that those editions of them which have survived bear the imprint of publishers of a later time. The ‘Stationers' Registers,’ so far as the entry of ballads is concerned, were very carelessly kept during the twenty-two years that the king's reign covered, and during some years only two or three appear in the lists. Of those which can be dated, many are amorous and romantic ballads, or illustrate the general aspects of the social history of England during the whole century rather than the limited period with which we are concerned. There remain, however, after all these deductions, a considerable number of still extant ballads which supply a kind of commentary on the political events of the reign, and show what the feeling of the people was at the time when those events happened.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1911

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References

page 22 note 1 Reprinted in Shirburn Ballads, p. 315Google Scholar, and Roxburghe Ballads, viii. 758.Google Scholar

page 22 note 2 Roxburghe Ballads, vii. 595Google Scholar; see also Scott, 's Border MinstrelsyGoogle Scholar and Maidment, 's Scottish Ballads, Historical and Traditionary.Google Scholar

page 22 note 3 Roxburghe Ballads, viii. 135.Google Scholar

page 23 note 1 In the Scottish Historical Review for 01 1909 (vol. vi. pp. 113128)Google Scholar I have put together an article upon ‘Ballads illustrating ths Relations of England and Scotland during the Seventeenth Century.’

page 23 note 2 ‘A Songe of a fine Skott,’ Fairholt, , Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume, p. 127Google Scholar. Percy Society, 1849Google Scholar. There is a later version of this song in Ritson, 's North Country Chorister: Northern Garlands, ed. 1887, p. 259Google Scholar. There the chorus runs:

‘Bonny Scot, we all witness can, That England made thee a gentleman.’

page 24 note 1 Hales, and Furnivall, , Bishop Percy's Folio MS. ii. 43.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 MS. Rawlinson Poet. clx. 179Google Scholar. Ashmole MS. xxxvi. 108Google Scholar; xxxviii. 443; and also in XIIth Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. pt. ix. p. 547.Google Scholar

page 24 note 3 Nichols, , Progresses of James I, i. 203.Google Scholar

page 25 note 1 Cole MSS. in B.M. vol. xxi. f. 206Google Scholar (quoting Crewe MS.). Printed in the Wiltshire Magazine. It is also printed in the appendix to Ebsworth, 's reprint of The Choice Drollery, 1656, p. 295Google Scholar. In All Souls MS. civ. 197Google Scholar are also lines on the Lincolnshire knights made by James I.

page 26 note 1 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 387.Google Scholar

page 26 note 2 Pepysian Ballads, i. 68Google Scholar; Caulfield, , Council Book of Cork, p. 102Google Scholar. There is also in the Pepysian Ballads, i. 70Google Scholar, a ballad on a battle between two hosts of birds in Ireland said to have taken place on September 8, 1621.

page 26 note 3 There is in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries a ballad called ‘Mount Taragh's Triumph,’ celebrating a review held by Lord Deputy Falkland on 07 5, 1626Google Scholar, but that is the only other ballad relating to Ireland during the first forty years of the century that I have found.

page 27 note 1 Brown, , Genesis of the United States, i. 420.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Pepysian Ballads, i. 190Google Scholar. Printed in full in the appendix to this paper.

page 27 note 3 On the lotteries see Brown, Alexander's Genesis of the United States, ii. 570Google Scholar, etc. A facsimile of a broadside relating to the lottery of 1616 is given at p. 760 of his book.

page 28 note 1 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 492Google Scholar; iv. 36.

page 28 note 2 Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 408, 423, 784Google Scholar. These three ballads, together with a later ballad on Captain Ward and a poem on the captives at Algiers, are reprinted in Naval Songs and Ballads, 1907, pp. 2333.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Autobiography of Sir S. D'Ewes, ed. Halliwell, , i. 46.Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 Nichols, , Progresses of James I, ii. 504–12.Google Scholar

page 29 note 3 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 506, 508, 511.Google Scholar

page 29 note 4 Printed in Ballads from MSS. ii. 292Google Scholar. The tune ‘In sad and ashy weeds’ is given by Mr. Chappell, in Old English Popular Music, i. 156Google Scholar. The words appear to have been first printed in the Crown Garland of Golden Roses, ed. 1631Google Scholar. This was probably the ballad called ‘The Shep herd's Lamentation,’ entered in the Stationers' Registers under November 19. Arber, , iii. 503.Google Scholar

page 30 note 1 For the lines see Ballads from MSS. ii. 290Google Scholar, and Court and Times of James I, ii. 150Google Scholar. On the comet see Court and Times of James I, ii. 110Google Scholar; Autobiography of Sir S. D'Ewes, i. 136Google Scholar; Rushworth, , Historical Collections, i.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 A list of these poems is given by Nichols, , Progresses of James I, iii. 543–45.Google Scholar

page 30 note 3 Printed in Old Ballads, 1723–5, iii. 139.Google Scholar

page 30 note 4 The Masques are reprinted by Nichols, who also gives a bibliographical list of the tracts and poems published. Progresses of James I, ii. 624Google Scholar. See also Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 512, 515, 518, 520.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 Nichols, , Progresses of James I, i. 513; iii. 43.Google Scholar

page 31 note 2 Printed in Nichols, , Progresses of James I, iii. 66Google Scholar; Corbet's Poems, ed. Gilchrist, , p. 13Google Scholar; Hawkins, , Ignoramus, p. cvii.Google Scholar

page 31 note 3 It begins ‘A ballad late was made, but God knows who's the penner.’ Hawkins, , p. cxvGoogle Scholar; Nichols, , iii. 66Google Scholar. Two other answers, ‘News from Cambridge’ (beginning ‘Of all the Universities’) and ‘A certain mordant and ingenuous reply of Cambridge’ (‘Sister, though you suppose us spent’), are printed in Huth, 's Inedited Poetical Miscellanies, 1870.Google Scholar

page 31 note 4 Hawkins, , p. xxxviiGoogle Scholar. Nichols, , iii. 73Google Scholar. Also printed under the title of ‘A New Quaint Ballad of Cambridge’ in Huth, 's Inedited Poetical Miscellanies, 1870.Google Scholar

page 32 note 1 Both these are printed in Huth, 's Inedited Poetical MiscellaniesGoogle Scholar. Nichols gives eight lines of the second, with a different title, and mentions two other unpublished answers amongst the Harleian MSS. Progresses, iii. 75Google Scholar. On the relation of the play to the constitutional struggle see Mullinger, J. Bass, History of the University of Cambridge, ii. 527.Google Scholar

page 32 note 2 MS. Rawlinson Poet, 160, f. 191Google Scholar (Bodleian Library). See also Nichols, , Progresses of James I, iii. 1008.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 The University of Cambridge, ii. 547Google Scholar. There is a poem on the subject in the Bodleian, (MS. Rawlinson Poet., 62, i. 42).Google Scholar

‘The town of Cambridge now

They say shall be a city,

They'll plague us all, both great and small,

Because we are so witty. Bulls and bears and bawling curs

Are come to town—what say you, Sirs?’

page 33 note 1 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 242–5.Google Scholar

page 33 note 2 Mackay, , Songs of the London Prentices and Trades, p. 28 (Percy Society, 1841)Google Scholar. There is also a good song on the removal of the law term to Winchester on account of the plague.

page 34 note 1 English Dramatic Poetry, i. 371, 386Google Scholar; Gentleman's Magazine, lxxxvi. 114Google Scholar. The ballad on the riot of the apprentices looks very suspicious.

page 34 note 2 MS. Rawlinson Poet. xxvi. f. 38.Google Scholar

page 34 note 3 Tanner MS. cccvi. f. 259Google Scholar; Fairholt, , Civic Garland, p. xi. (Percy Society, 1845)Google Scholar. See also Nichols, , Progresses of James I, iii. 593, 604Google Scholar; and Milman, , Annals of St. Paul's, pp. 318, 335.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 Report on the MSS. of the Duke of Rutland, i. 406.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii, 359, 394.Google Scholar

page 36 note 1 Roxburghe Ballads, i. 547.Google Scholar

page 36 note 2 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iv. 312, 314, 319, 320.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 Roxburghe Ballads, vai. xv***. The unique original is imperfect. Mr. Ebsworth does not say where it is to be found.

page 37 note 2 Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides, p. 77.Google Scholar

page 37 note 3 Choyce Drollery, ed. Ebsworth, , 1876, p. 40Google Scholar. Roxburghe Ballads, iv. 273Google Scholar; viii. 757. Reprinted also in Political Merriment, 1714, ii. 151Google Scholar. Mr. Ebsworth's main argument for holding the ballad to be contemporary is that its refrain is the same as that of the ballad on ‘The Pedigree of King James’ printed in 1603. On the other hand verse 8 seems to refer to the defeat of the Spanish fleet off Dover by the Dutch in October 1639.

page 38 note 1 In Ballads from MSS. ii. 293Google Scholar there are some verses ‘against the Papists for thinking it meritorious to kill the King and all his Protestants.’ There are also some verses addressed by a Catholic to George Jarves, a priest, executed on April 11, 1608, urging him to stand fast for the faith and to remember Campion.

page 39 note 1 For the text see Roxburghe Ballads, vii. 601Google Scholar. See Crawford, Lord's Catalogue of Ballads, nos. 101103Google Scholar; and for the tune Chappell, 's Old English Popular Music, i. 274.Google Scholar

page 39 note 2 Ballads from MSS. ii. 252, 262.Google Scholar

page 40 note 1 S.P.Dom. James I, ciii. n. 102Google Scholar, apud Raleghana, part vii. p. 15Google Scholar. by T. N. Brushfield. See Court and Times of James I, ii. 99, 104, 106.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 421Google Scholar; cf. Child, , English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 135Google Scholar. It was sung to the tune of ‘Sailing in the Lowlands.’ Perhaps there was an earlier ballad on Raleigh with this title and his name was transferred from it to the extant one.

page 42 note 1 Pepysian Ballads, i. 124, 130, 132.Google Scholar

page 42 note 2 Probably the ballads on Spenser, John (i. 114, 5)Google Scholar and Price, Richard (i. 116)Google Scholar belong to reign of James I. I should assign Adlington, Henry (Shirburn Ballads, p. 106)Google Scholar and Smith, Ned and Pureas, William to this reign also (Boxbarghe Ballads, ii. 465Google Scholar; ii. 28).

page 42 note 3 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 244, 273, 340, 341, 371.Google Scholar

page 42 note 4 Shirburn Ballads, p. 68.Google Scholar

page 43 note 1 Shirburn Ballads, pp. 55, 77, 134.Google Scholar

page 43 note 2 For instance in SirWeldon, Anthony's Court and Character of King James.Google Scholar

page 43 note 3 Life of Sir S. D'Ewes, ed. Halliwell, , i. 87Google Scholar. D'Ewes quotes a couple oi anagrams.

page 43 note 4 An epigram beginning ‘From Katherine's dock there Ianch't a Pinke’ is printed in the Farmer Chetham MS. (p. 121), edited by Dr. Grosart for the Chetham Society. It is also to be found in Huth, 's Inedited Poetical Miscellanies.Google Scholar

page 44 note 1 Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, pp. 4446.Google Scholar

page 44 note 2 Mr. Ebsworth gives the first line of each (Roxburghe Ballads, vii. 420)Google Scholar, and mentions the existence of a lost ballad on the subject, ib. vii. 417.Google Scholar

page 44 note 3 In Huth, 's Fugitive Poetical Tracts, vol. iiGoogle Scholar. nos. vii. and viii., published in 1875.

page 44 note 4 It is to be found in The Kentish Garland, ed. by De Vaynes, J. H. L. 1882, ii. 557.Google Scholar

page 44 note 5 There is a poem called ‘The Subject's Joy for the Parliament,’ written by John Taylor; Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides, p. 53.Google Scholar

page 44 note 6 Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides, p. 54Google Scholar. Catalogue of Satirical Prints in the British Museum, p. 55Google Scholar. The latter of these reprints the verses; cf. Court and Times of James I, ii. 410.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 Pepysian Ballads, i. 142.Google Scholar

page 45 note 2 For the two libels see Ballads iront MSS. ii. 278Google Scholar, and Trevetyan Papers, iii. 163Google Scholar. Lewis, 's poem is printed in Ballads from MSS. ii. 271Google Scholar, and in Grosart, 's Dr. Farmer Chetham MS. ii. 66Google Scholar. There are also a number of MS. copies in various places (Ashmole MSS. 38 (14)Google Scholar, besides four in the British Museum.

page 46 note 1 Fairholt, , Poems and Songs relating to George Duke of Buckingham (Percy Society, 1850), p. iGoogle Scholar

page 46 note 2 Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 433Google Scholar. The ballad on Henry IV is in the Pepysian Ballads (i. 112)Google Scholar. It begins: ‘France that is so famous, and late in joys abounded.’ It is a poor ballad, and moreover somewhat imperfect.

page 46 note 3 Arber, , iii. 531.Google Scholar

page 46 note 4 It begins: ‘The Lord of Hosts hath blessed no land.’ The original is Pepys, i. 100Google Scholar. On the peace see Stow, 's Chronicle, ed. 1631, p. 1006.Google Scholar

page note 5 See Hales, and Furnivall, , i. 515Google Scholar. Arber, , Stationers' Registers, iii. 555.Google Scholar

page 47 note 1 The play was first printed by MrBullen, A. H., in 1883, in vol. iiGoogle Scholar. of his Old Plays. On it see also Ward, 's English Dramatic Literature, ii. 716, ed. 1899Google Scholar. Some contemporary notices of the event are to be found in Court and Times of James I, ii. 90, 161.Google Scholar

page 47 note 2 Pepysian Ballads, i. 108Google Scholar. See Motley, , Life of John of Barneveld, ii. 287, ed. 1875.Google Scholar

page 48 note 1 Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 56.Google Scholar

page 49 note 1 Gardiner, , History of England, v. 242Google Scholar; Court and Times of James I, ii. 45, 465.Google Scholar

page 49 note 2 Pepysian Ballads, i. 94.Google Scholar

page 49 note 3 Court and Times of James I, ii. 500.Google Scholar

page 50 note 1 ‘Gallants to Bohemia’ is in the Pepysian Ballads, i. 102Google Scholar. It is undated, but belongs apparently to the first half of the year 1620. There is also in the same collection (i. 104) an imperfect ballad about the ‘High and Illustrious King of Bohemia’ and his ‘princely children.’ From the references to ‘Ludovica Hollandina,’ a daughter born in April 1622, and ‘illustrious Mansfield,’ this second ballad seems to belong to the latter part of 1624.

page 50 note 2 MS. Rawlinson Poet. clx. f. 187.Google Scholar

page 51 note 1 ‘For want of other matter I send you here certain verses made upon Jack and Tom's journey; for the Prince and Marques went through Kent under the names of Jack and Tom Smith. They were fathered first upon the King, but I hear since they were only corrected and amended by him.’—Chamberlain to Carleton, 03 21, 1623Google Scholar (Court and Times of James I, ii. 375)Google Scholar. The verses are MS. Rawlinson Poet. xxvi. 21.Google Scholar

page 51 note 2 MS. Rawlinson Poet. xxvi. 22.Google Scholar

page 52 note 1 MS. Rawlinson Poet. clx. f. 77Google Scholar; Tanner MS., cccvi. 258.Google Scholar

page 52 note 2 Court and Times of James I, ii. 422.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 MS. Ravilinson Poet. 160, f. 180.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 Rawlinson MS. Poetical, 172, f. 79Google Scholar. Gardiner, , History of England, V. 222.Google Scholar

page 54 note 2 Ib. v. 223Google Scholar. There is a broadside in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries representing this council, Lemon, , p. 65.Google Scholar

page 54 note 3 Lemon, , Catalogue of Broadsides in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 69.Google Scholar

page 55 note 1 Gardiner, , History of England, v. 271, 277.Google Scholar

page 55 note 2 Lemon, 's Catalogue of Broadsides in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 60Google Scholar. See also Gardiner, , History of England, v. 142Google Scholar; Court and Times of James I, ii. 428Google Scholar; Catalogue of Satirical Prints in the British Museum, pp. 33, 57, 58.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 The proclamation is number 1374 in Crawford, Lord's Catalogue of ProclamationsGoogle Scholar. Similar ones had been issued Feb. 22, 1604, June 10, 1606, and June 2, 1610. The ballad is in the Pepysian Ballads, i. 60Google Scholar. Compare with a ‘Scourge for the Pope,’ the engraved broadside entitled ‘The Travels of Time’ in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries (Lemon, 's Catalogue, p. 67)Google Scholar. It is a pictorial treatment of the same subject with a verse dialogue appended. There is an imperfect ballad in the Pepysian Ballads (i. 62)Google Scholar entitled ‘A New Year's Gift for the Pope,’ which possibly belongs to the same date.

page 56 note 2 Nichols, , Progresses of James I, iv. 1050.Google Scholar

page 56 note 3 ‘A Funeral Elegie,’ Lemon, 's Catalogue of Broadsides, No. 258.Google Scholar