A Merry Dialogue; between a Doctor and Dairymaid: by Lilli Burlero (both Parts, and the Epigram), 1688-89 King William's Birthday: a November Guy Sorrowful Complaint of Conscience and Plain-Dealing. PAGE 370 416 431 The Maid of Lynn (First Song) 462 The Lass of Lynn's Sorrowful Lamentation (Second Song). 463 End of the First Division; in the middle of Original Second Volume. "Bagford was the most hungry and rapacious of all book and print Dn Political Street-Ballads and Ballad-Singers. ALTER SCOTT, when concluding his first Waverley Novel, wrote "A Postscript which should have been a Preface." He acknowledged his reasons, with his usual manliness: "First, that most novelreaders, as my own conscience reminds. me, are apt to be guilty of the sin of omission respecting that same matter of prefaces. Secondly, that it is a general custom among that class of students, to begin with the last chapter of a work; so that, after all, these remarks, being introduced last in order, have still the BAGFORD. b best chance to be read in their proper place." Likely to be twice read, we may add. As with other prefatory matter, the Introduction which welcomes our readers to such entertainment for man and beast as the Bagford Ballads are capable of affording, is the Editor's final work on the present undertaking. It is not written until he has reached the Appendix-end, and when he has already girded up his loins to run a much harder race, for the same fellow-members of the Ballad Society: viz. the editing with his utmost care that valuable series of broadsides and fly-leaves which fluttered amid the crowd from 1642 to 1660. THE CIVIL WAR AND THE PROTECTORATE, UNTIL THE RESTORATION: ILLUSTRATED BY THE BALLADS AND POEMS OF THE TIME. This is the work which, if they desire it, he hopes to speedily produce, in self-complete portions, for the perusal of (let us hope) an increased number of subscribers. The importance of such a Library Edition, as a trustworthy and scholarly record of the most interesting period of our English History, he thoroughly weighs. He can give no better proof of his doing so, than thus willingly devoting some of the best remaining years of his life to the task; if, indeed, the years remain to be given. The present series of Bagford Ballads, however desultory and miscellaneous they may appear, will scarcely be undervalued by thoughtful students. Rough and clumsy as is the workmanship in many of them, they are genuine records of the last days of Stuart rule, and of the unquiet time which followed the Revolution of 1688, until the end of the century. It seemed unadvisable to alter the order of succession, in which the original documents were arranged, although it had been made, for the most part, on a very hap-hazard principle. It would have caused "confusion, worse than death," in all external references to the Bag Thus, the first annual portion would be devoted to the time between the outbreak of the Scotch Rebellion and the death of Strafford or Laud. The Second Part would continue the history of Charles until his trial and execution. The Third would extend to the dissolution of the Long Parliament in 1653. The Fourth would end with the great storm of September, 1658, in which the soul of Cromwell passed away. The Fifth and last would give the next two years, including the Restoration, and the death of the Regicides. If found desirable, the Editor could give the opening-portion at an early date; not interfering with the resumed publication of the Roxburghe Ballads: after 1878. |