‘Turne again, Whittington,’
Call you back may moe
To live so in London.”
This ballad, as it stands here with the exception of the last stanza, was reprinted in A Collection of Old Ballads, 1823, vol. i. p. 130.
This ballad is the original of all the later ballads, although the titles have been greatly varied. The Roxburghe ballad (vol. iii. p. 58) is dated in the British Museum Catalogue 1641[?]. Its full title is as follows:—
“London’s Glory and Whittington’s Renown, or a Looking Glass for Citizens of London, being a remarkable story how Sir Richard Whittington (a poor boy bred up in Lancashire) came to be three times Lord Mayor of London in three several kings’ reigns, and how his rise was by a cat, which he sent by a venture beyond sea. Together with his bountiful gifts and liberality given to this honourable City, and the vast sums of money he lent the King to maintain the wars in France; and how at a great Feast, to which he invited the King, the Queen, and the Nobility, he generously burnt the writings and freely forgave his Majesty the whole Debt. Tune of ‘Dainty, come thou to me.’ London: Printed for R. Burton, at the Horse Shoe in West Smithfield.”
The bulk of the ballad is the same as Richard Johnson’s, but the following first stanza is added, the original first stanza becoming the second:—
“Brave London Prentices,
Come listen to my song,
Tis for your glory all