A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads of...1595-1639, Chiefly from the Collectionof Samuel Pepys by Hyder E. RollinsReview by: A. E. H. SwaenThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1923), pp. 215-219Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714602 .

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Reviews Reviews

may be said to be complete. Professor Schoell seems, by the way, to be ignorant that Professor Parrott, to whom is due. the vindication of Chapman's claim to Sir Giles Goosecap, also assigns this play to him (see Modern Philology, Vol. XIII, 1915-16), for he makes no mention of this in his introduction. This introduction is a careful piece of work and the notes also are well done, the only adverse criticism of these that suggests itself being that they are too exclusively concerned with the problem of authorship. The play contains many unusual expressions and one or two obscure passages which have been passed over without com- ment. Apart from this, Professor Schoell has given us as good an edition of Charlemagne as could be desired. He favours 1598-9 as the date, agreeing with Bullen in declining to accept the allusion to 'King Charlimayne' in Peele's Farewell to Norris and Drake of 1589 (where the name occurs in conjunction with 'Mahomet's Poo and mighty Tamburlaine') as a reference to this play.

ENFIELD. H. DUGDALE SYKES.

A Pepysian Garland. Black-letter Broadside Ballads of... 1595-1639, chiefly from the collection of Samuel Pepys. Edited by HYDER E. ROLLINS. Cambridge: University Press. 1922. 8vo. xxxi + 491pp. 21s.

Having recently returned from a visit to Cambridge and a renewed study of Pepys's collection of broadside ballads, I was very agreeably surprized by the receipt of this volume, which gives to those who are-not acquainted with the original ballads a very good impression of what they are like, minus the black-letter, which is retained only in the titles, and reminds those who have pored over the diarist's wonderful collection, of hours pleasantly and instructively spent in the study of this engrossing subject within the hospitable walls of the University Library. Those who have experienced the courtesy of Mr 0. F. Morshead, the librarian of Magdalene College, will be gratified to see that the Garland is dedi- cated to him.

The volume marks a rapid progress after Professor Rollins's first publication, especially noticeable in the copious introductory notes. In the preface the author gives a concise history of the ballad, and discusses its merits and demerits. 'To judge the ballads as poetry is altogether unfair.... Ballads were not written for poetry.' This is, of course, a per- fectly just and correct statement, but one is pleased to read that 'From the point of view of sheer melody and rhythm, ballads often answer more than fairly to the test,' for it is a very remarkable fact, too often neglected by writers on the subject, that although the balladists are inferior poets, they frequently have a fine ear for rhythm and rime. Take for example the stanza of No. 19, The pe(llar opening his pack:

Who is it will repaire, or come and see my packet:

Where there's store of Ware, if any of you lacke it,

view the Fayre. 14--2

may be said to be complete. Professor Schoell seems, by the way, to be ignorant that Professor Parrott, to whom is due. the vindication of Chapman's claim to Sir Giles Goosecap, also assigns this play to him (see Modern Philology, Vol. XIII, 1915-16), for he makes no mention of this in his introduction. This introduction is a careful piece of work and the notes also are well done, the only adverse criticism of these that suggests itself being that they are too exclusively concerned with the problem of authorship. The play contains many unusual expressions and one or two obscure passages which have been passed over without com- ment. Apart from this, Professor Schoell has given us as good an edition of Charlemagne as could be desired. He favours 1598-9 as the date, agreeing with Bullen in declining to accept the allusion to 'King Charlimayne' in Peele's Farewell to Norris and Drake of 1589 (where the name occurs in conjunction with 'Mahomet's Poo and mighty Tamburlaine') as a reference to this play.

ENFIELD. H. DUGDALE SYKES.

A Pepysian Garland. Black-letter Broadside Ballads of... 1595-1639, chiefly from the collection of Samuel Pepys. Edited by HYDER E. ROLLINS. Cambridge: University Press. 1922. 8vo. xxxi + 491pp. 21s.

Having recently returned from a visit to Cambridge and a renewed study of Pepys's collection of broadside ballads, I was very agreeably surprized by the receipt of this volume, which gives to those who are-not acquainted with the original ballads a very good impression of what they are like, minus the black-letter, which is retained only in the titles, and reminds those who have pored over the diarist's wonderful collection, of hours pleasantly and instructively spent in the study of this engrossing subject within the hospitable walls of the University Library. Those who have experienced the courtesy of Mr 0. F. Morshead, the librarian of Magdalene College, will be gratified to see that the Garland is dedi- cated to him.

The volume marks a rapid progress after Professor Rollins's first publication, especially noticeable in the copious introductory notes. In the preface the author gives a concise history of the ballad, and discusses its merits and demerits. 'To judge the ballads as poetry is altogether unfair.... Ballads were not written for poetry.' This is, of course, a per- fectly just and correct statement, but one is pleased to read that 'From the point of view of sheer melody and rhythm, ballads often answer more than fairly to the test,' for it is a very remarkable fact, too often neglected by writers on the subject, that although the balladists are inferior poets, they frequently have a fine ear for rhythm and rime. Take for example the stanza of No. 19, The pe(llar opening his pack:

Who is it will repaire, or come and see my packet:

Where there's store of Ware, if any of you lacke it,

view the Fayre. 14--2

215 215

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It is written to the tune of Last Christmas 'twas my chance, which Pro- fessor Rollins says he has not met with elsewhere, but which he will find in Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. v, p. 25. The tune is so named from the first line of The Dance of the Usurer and the Devil:

Last Christnlas 'twas my chance, To be in Paris city;

Where I did see a Dance, In my conceit was very pretty-By men of France.

Or, take the four-line stanza, brisk in movement, running on the same rime and crowned by a twice-repeated refrain, of No. 41, The Wiving Age:

The Maidens of London are now in despaire, How they shall get husbands, it is all their care, Though maidens be neuer so vertuous and faire, Yet old wealthy widowes, are yong mens chiefe ware.

Oh this is a wiuing age. Oh this is a wiuing age.

Or, for a last example, the metrically interesting stanza of No. 11, The history of Jonas, with its artistic rime-scheme, and its relieving short couplet connecting a long-lined quatrain and tercet:

Vnto the ProIphet lonas I read, The word of the Lord secretly came, Saying to Niniuy passe thou with speed, To that mightie Citie of wondrous fame.

Against it quoth he cry out and be free.

Their wickednesse great is come vp to me. Sinne is the cause of great sorrow and care, But God through repentance his vengeance doth spare.

The most importantpart of the preface is undoubtedly Professor Rollins's disquisition on the jig. I believe he is the first to have thrown clear light upon the real nature of this interesting miniature drama, which 'was sung and danced on the stage to ballad-tunes.' Jigs have suffered from erroneous definition, partly owing to the fact, no doubt, that very few genuine jigs were known when the definition was given. The editor prints a most interesting specimen, which worthily opens the Garland. It is entitled 'Frauncis new Jigge, betweene Frauncis a Gentleman, and Richard a Farmer.' The title is not quite correct, for there is a very important third personage, viz. Besse, Richard's wife, while the second part introduces a fourth dramatis persona, Master Frauncis'' owne wife, having a maske before her face, supposing her to be Besse.' It is a dramatic sketch, sung to various tunes. Evidently there was a dance at the end of the first part, for after the last line there is the stage direc- tion: 'Enter Mistris Frauncis with Richard. To the tune of Bugle Boe.' That is to say, they danced upon entering, after which came their dia- logue, to the tune of As I went to Walsingham, opening the second part. Students of the Shirburn Ballads will remember a somewhat different version of this jig under the title of' Mr Attowel's Jigge.' It is so called from George Attowell (Atwell), the actor, who, no doubt, danced in this jig and whose name is under the printed copy, which need not imply that

216 Reviews

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he is the author. Professor Rollins does more than to define the character of the jig; he also gives its history and traces its influence, adding a valuable page to the history of the English drama.

Although the volume is mainly what the title calls it, a Pepysian Garland, yet a small number of ballads is added from other sources, viz. six from the Wood and Rawlinson collections at the Bodleian Library, and one from the Manchester Free Reference Library. Among these is the spirited, musical 'Round boyes indeed. Or The Shoomakers Holy-day.' It is what it calls itself'a very pleasant new Ditty... To a pleasant new Tune.'

Ilere we are good fellowes all, round Boyes round:

Attendance giue when we doe call, round boyes indeed.

Since we are here good fellowes all, drinke we must and worke we shall.

And worke we will what ere befall, for money to serue our need.

Professor Rollins has been particularly happy in the choice of the seventy-three ballads from the first of the five stout volumes of the Pepys collection. Fortunately 'no attempt has been made to smooth away or omit the three or four objectionable words that occur. Bowdlerizing is out of the question in a work of this kind.' Occasionally more is meant than meets the eye, but the specialist does not mind and the general reader will not be harmed. The Garland is representative and forms with its instructive preface and notes an excellent introduction to the study of a subject which is gradually being recognized as indispensable to those who wish to understand 'the lives and thoughts, the hopes and fears, the beliefs and amusements, of sixteenth and seventeenth century Englishmen.' Ballads were,' in the main, the equivalent of modern news- papers, and it cannot well be denied that customarily they performed their function as creditably in verse as the average newspaper does in prose. Journalistic ballads outnumbered all other types. Others were sermons, or romances, or ditties of love and jealousy, of tricks and "jests," comparable to the ragtime, or music hall, songs of the present time.' In this collection a variety of subjects is represented. Local, English and continental history (Nos. 9; 15; 4, 7, 52); customs, social conditions, trades (Nos. 2, 5, 10, 12, 34, 70; 47; 72, 3, 64); marriage (Nos. 41, 58, 62; 40); didactic and moral lessons (Nos. 64, 65; 27, 31, 66); biblical history (Nos. 11, 61); repentant sinners (Nos. 14, 15, 49, 63, 75); murder and cruelty (Nos. 39, 14, 49, 50, 51); events of the day (Nos. 14, 22, 24, 39, 68); prognostications and wonders (Nos. 24, 25, 26, 78, 79); witches (No. 16), and a voracious eater (No. 60), are a few of the multifarious subjects dealt with in this Garland.

Ballad-readers were kept well-informed of what happened on the continent. The execution of Johan van Oldenbarneveldt is commemo- rated in Murther unmasked, Or Barneviles base Conspiracie against his owne Country, discouered. The portrait which adorns the broadside is most decidedly not van Oldenbarneveldt's. We do not now speak of his

Reviews 217

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'base conspiracy,' but such was the view then held in England. The play by Massinger and Fletcher, a new edition of which has lately ap- peared , represents the great patriot in a slightly less unfavourable light. Fhe struggle between Spain and the United Provinces attracted a good ieal of attention as is evident from No. 80, A new Spanish Tragedy2. Many readers will be interested in No. 20, The Lamenting Lady, which narrates the famous legend of the Countess Margareta van Henneberg, of Loosduinen near the Hague, who, as the result of a curse, produced 365 boys and girls at one birth. The story is preceded by a detailed note in which the editor adduces a number of interesting facts connected with this legend, which owes its origin to the unfortunate circumstance that the lady, an historical personage, was confined on Good Friday of as many children as the days the year had yet to run, viz. two, the New Year falling on Easterday. There is a slight mistake in the note: the marvel did not happen at Dordrecht or Dort, but at Loosduinen3.

If one compares Professor Rollins's notes with those of Ebsworth and Chappell in the publications of the Ballad Society the advance is immense. Ebsworth was deeply read in ballads and songs, but his vagaries are apt to irritate the reader. Mr Rollins is very accurate and deals with his subject scientifically. There is one unfortunate printer's error in the note on p. 248, preceding The life and death of Mi. Geo: Sands. The ballad describes how Sandys was hanged for robbery. In the note the editor says that 'Mr George Sandys, his father Sir George, and his mother Lady Susanna were notorious rotters, inveterate criminals.' I sup- pose we should read 'robbers' for the slangy 'rotters.' Prof. Rollins has paid greater attention to the tunes than in his previous volume. No. 13 offers a very rare instance, as the editor duly notes, of the second part of a ballad being written to a tune different from that of the first part. The first example in the note is only apparent, for Philliday (Phillida flouts me) is written to the tune of Dainty come thou to me, vide Shirburn Ballads, No. LXXIII. Another example is the famous ballad of The Widow of Watling Street and her three daughters, the first part of which is written to the tune of Bragandary, the second to that of The wanton wife'. 'Bragandary' is also represented in the Garland, and it is in- teresting to find that No. 76, Murder upon Murder, is written to the tune of Bragandary downe, &c., which I have not found elsewhere. There is a variant Braggendarty, the tune of A newe songe of the triumphs of the Tilt, Stationers' Registers, 28 March 1604 (cp. No. 49).

One would be inclined to identify In Slumbring Sleepe, the tune of No. 45, with the first line of Death's uncontrollable Summons in J. P. Collier's A Book of Roxburghe Ballads, p. 328, which runs:

In slumber and sleep my senses fall,

1 The Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt. Ed. by W. P. Frijlinck, Amsterdam, 1922.

2 Trump in the introduction to this ballad (p. 455) should be Tromp. 3 Prof. Rollins has published interesting details in Notes and Queries 12th S., xi,

p. 351. 1 Shirburn Ballads, No. 1.

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Reviews Reviews 219 219

but the following hey ho, hey ho ! then slept I

seems to forbid this. I think Prof. Rollins has, on the whole, struck le juste milieu in the

case of the tunes; too little information irritates, too much confuses. There is enough here for the general reader and sufficient indication for those who are interested in the subject to find further information.

Some of the refrains are very interesting. There is, for example, that of No. 28, which we might term incremental, and that of No. 42, which we might call repetitional.

I heare say y'are married since I saw you last: 0 this is a hasty Age, 0 this is a hasty Age

must have been very effective if sung with proper emphasis and with the requisite gesture.

The Glossarial Index is very full. On the whole the language of black-letter ballads is not difficult, but naturally here and there a rare or obsolete word will crop up. I do not think there is a single case in which the reader will turn to the glossary in vain. It is curious to find, now and then, a learned word in these popular songs, as when, for instance, one balladist refers to a competitor as

The hetroclite Singer, that goes vpon Crutches.

Prof. Rollins does not tell us if Martin Parker was meant. The editor has been particularly happy in his choice of woodcuts:

the porters on p. 12, the fool shooting his bolt on p. 317, the ratcatcher on p. 61 are fine specimens, and the illustration representing a man in the stocks contentedly playing his fiddle (p. 193) is by no means devoid of humour. A treatise on the woodcuts of these broadside ballads would be interesting and instructive reading.

The book is very carefully printed on good paper. The fine exterior covers an excellent interior, and both publishers and author deserve our full praise. Let us tope that Prof. Rollins will dive into the other volumes of Pepys and confer the boon of a sequel to this Garland upon all who have enjoyed the perusal of this volume.

A. E. H. SWAEN. AMSTERDAM.

The Place-names of Lancashire. By EILERT EKWALL. Manchester: University Press. 8vo. xvi + 280 pp. 25s.

There is no field of English linguistic studies in which we are not heavily indebted to Scandinavian scholars, but this is true in a peculiar degree of the study of place and personal names. Our debt to Zachrisson and Bjorkman has long since been recognized and we have owed much to the work of their pupils, and here it may suffice to mention the names of Lindkvist, Ekblom and Redin. Dr Ekwall has in one book and in many articles, notes and reviews, given us a foretaste of his own excellence as a student of place-names, and now in the volume which

but the following hey ho, hey ho ! then slept I

seems to forbid this. I think Prof. Rollins has, on the whole, struck le juste milieu in the

case of the tunes; too little information irritates, too much confuses. There is enough here for the general reader and sufficient indication for those who are interested in the subject to find further information.

Some of the refrains are very interesting. There is, for example, that of No. 28, which we might term incremental, and that of No. 42, which we might call repetitional.

I heare say y'are married since I saw you last: 0 this is a hasty Age, 0 this is a hasty Age

must have been very effective if sung with proper emphasis and with the requisite gesture.

The Glossarial Index is very full. On the whole the language of black-letter ballads is not difficult, but naturally here and there a rare or obsolete word will crop up. I do not think there is a single case in which the reader will turn to the glossary in vain. It is curious to find, now and then, a learned word in these popular songs, as when, for instance, one balladist refers to a competitor as

The hetroclite Singer, that goes vpon Crutches.

Prof. Rollins does not tell us if Martin Parker was meant. The editor has been particularly happy in his choice of woodcuts:

the porters on p. 12, the fool shooting his bolt on p. 317, the ratcatcher on p. 61 are fine specimens, and the illustration representing a man in the stocks contentedly playing his fiddle (p. 193) is by no means devoid of humour. A treatise on the woodcuts of these broadside ballads would be interesting and instructive reading.

The book is very carefully printed on good paper. The fine exterior covers an excellent interior, and both publishers and author deserve our full praise. Let us tope that Prof. Rollins will dive into the other volumes of Pepys and confer the boon of a sequel to this Garland upon all who have enjoyed the perusal of this volume.

A. E. H. SWAEN. AMSTERDAM.

The Place-names of Lancashire. By EILERT EKWALL. Manchester: University Press. 8vo. xvi + 280 pp. 25s.

There is no field of English linguistic studies in which we are not heavily indebted to Scandinavian scholars, but this is true in a peculiar degree of the study of place and personal names. Our debt to Zachrisson and Bjorkman has long since been recognized and we have owed much to the work of their pupils, and here it may suffice to mention the names of Lindkvist, Ekblom and Redin. Dr Ekwall has in one book and in many articles, notes and reviews, given us a foretaste of his own excellence as a student of place-names, and now in the volume which

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