All these books, written for the people, were at length consumed by the hands of their multitudinous readers; we learn, indeed, in Anthony à Wood’s time, that some had descended to the stalls; but at the present day some of these rare fugitive pieces may be unique. This sort of pamphlet, Burton, the anatomist of melancholy, was delighted to heap together: and the collection formed by such a keen relish of popular humours, he actually bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, where, if they are kept together, they would answer the design of the donor; otherwise, such domestic records of the humours and manners of the age, diffused among the general mass, would bear only the value of their rarity.
[1] Mr. Ellis has preserved it entire, with notes which make it intelligible to any modern reader.
[2] Percy’s “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” ii. 1.—“The liberty of abasing their kings and princes at pleasure, assumed by the good people of this realm, is a privilege of very long standing.”
[3] The Political Songs of England have been recently given by Mr. Thomas Wright, to whom our literature owes many deep obligations. [In the series of volumes published by the Camden Society.]
[4] Lewed Mr. Campbell interprets low, which is not quite correct. Hearne explains the term as signifying “the laity, laymen, and the illiterate.”—The layman was always considered to be illiterate, by the devices of the monks.
[5] It is to be regretted that Mr. Jamieson, in his “Popular Ballads,” was unavoidably prevented enlarging this class of his songs. He has given the carols of the Boatmen, the Corn-grinders, and the Dairy-women.—Jamieson’s “Popular Ballads,” ii. 352. [See also “Curiosities of Literature,” vol. ii., p. 142, for an article on Songs of Trades, or Songs of the People. A volume of “Songs of the English Peasantry” was published by the Percy Society; and several others are given with the tunes in Chappell’s “Popular Music of the Olden Time.”]
[6] Hearne’s “Preface to Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle,” xxxvii.
[7] The curious researches of a French antiquary in this class of literature are given in the two octavo volumes entitled “Histoire des Livres Populaires, ou de la Littérature du Colportage,” (Paris, 1854,) by M. Chas. Nisard, who was appointed to the task by a Royal Commission.—Ed.
[8] “Foreign Quarterly Review,” vol. 18. [It is reprinted in the first Volume of Thoms’ “Early English Prose Romances.”]