Transcriber’s Note
This e-book is volume 5 of Thomas D’Urfey’s Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy, published in six volumes in 1719-20 by J. Tonson, London. It was prepared from a 1959 facsimile reprint by Folklore Library Publishers, Inc., New York, of an 1876 reprint (publisher unidentified).
The 1719-20 edition was published in two issues. The first issue was published under the title Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; the second, under the Wit and Mirth title. The 1876 reprint apparently used a combination of the two issues, and volume 5 bears the Songs Compleat title. Moreover, the 1876 reprint was not an exact facsimile of the 1719-20 edition, as the typography and music notation were modernized. For more information on the various editions, see Cyrus L. Day, “Pills to Purge Melancholy,” The Review of English Studies, Vol. 8, No. 30 (Apr. 1932), pp. 177-184, available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/508831 (login required).
Midi files have been provided for the songs in this e-book. To hear a song, click on the [Listen] link. Lyrics within the music notation are set forth in text below the music images.
Archaic and inconsistent spellings and hyphenation have been preserved as they appear in the original, except that “VV” is rendered as “W.” The original order of titles in the [Alphabetical Table] has also been preserved. Obvious printer errors in both text and music have been corrected.
Some words in the [first song] are rendered in the original in blackletter font. They are rendered here in bold italics.
WIT and MIRTH:
OR
PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY
EDITED BY
THOMAS D’URFEY
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME V
FOLKLORE LIBRARY PUBLISHERS, INC.
NEW YORK
1959