Political ballads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

William Walker Wilkins

Sujets

• English poetry
• 18th century
• Early modern period
• England

Informations

• Publié par: les_archives_du_savoir
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

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POLITICAL BALLADS
VOL. 1.LONDON
PRINTED BY 6P0TTISW00DE AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUAREPOLITICAL BALLADS
OF THE
Eighteenth CenturiesSeventeenth and
ANNOTATED
WILKINSBY W. WALKER
" the times so luell asdo not show theMore solid things complexion of
Table-TallcBallads and Libels"— Selien's
In Two Vols.
THE FIRSTVOLUME
LONDON
AND ROBERTSLONGMAN,LONGMAN, GREEN,
MDCCCLXPREFACE
one hundred and haveNearly fifty years elapfed
the laft Colle£lion State Poems wasfince of pub-
And that which waslifhed. collection, comprifed
in but afterwards to fourtwo, augmentedoriginally
relates to a of ourvolumes, only period hiflory
—over little more than half aextending century
from the of Cromwell to thenamely, ufurpation
Anne. But foracceflion of the fa6t that theQueen
"
are various andvolumes in hands,"byqueftion
more than others thetherefore fully anyreprefent
limited to whichfatirical wit ofthe refer,theyperiod
deferve a fowould notice,fcarcely pafTmg verythey
inaccurate are the contents of them.and
partial
fewcontain, moreover, ballads,They political
fo called but confift almoft of
; entirelyproperly
"
the ofand from pensinfipid poems," chieflylong
other exaltedandRochefter,Buckingham, per-
in confiderablewho exercifed their dayfonages,
3AVI PREFACE.
about the and in theinfluence Court, government
and rather as an exercife of aof the who,country,
than from
neceflary accompHfhment anyfuppofed
amufed themfelves withbafer motive, occafionally
the foibles of and the
majefty, expofingridicuHng
of their rivals for his confidence. Such
intrigues
are no of thewriters manifeftly exponents popular
: the vaft of their havemind compofitionsmajority
fince fallen into almoft andoblivion,neglect,long
are never to much lefs influence,intereft,likely again
clafs of readers.any
other of literature hasWhilft every department
been and variouflythoroughly explored, amplified,
our modern Political and Balladsilluflirated, Songs
— —illuftrations of con-the beft popular hiftory
toftitute the the rule.
folitary exception general
Two caufes in be for the
particular may afligned
indifi^erence with which fuchAngular compofitions
have been hitherto treated. In the firfl;
place, they
are fo fcattered as to render
diflrifely hopelefs any
a individual to if fuch amake,attempt by fingle
were an entire colledtion ofdefirable, them,thing
or indeed to it and
;any approximation fecondly,
their merit.
rarely pofi^efTing any literary
There few moreare, however, compofitions