A Century of Ballads. Collected, Edited, and Illustrated in Fm-simile,
by John Ashton. (Elliot Stock.)—Mr. Ashton has gathered into this volume a hundred ballads "illustrative," as he puts it, "of the Life, Manners, and Habits of the English nation during the Seventeenth Century." He divides them into "Social," "Supernatural," "Historical," "Love," "Drinking," "Sea," "Naval and Military," and " Sporting " ballads, adding a number of local and miscellaneous which are certainly not less interesting than the rest. Perhaps the second of this section might have been advantageously put among the first. It tells how four young women ran a race, and describes their dress with a curious minuteness. Among the other curiosities are "The Stout Cripple of Cornwall," and "The Complaint and Lamentation of Mistress Arden, of Feversham in Kent," a dismal tragedy of jealousy and crime. The same sort of literature is produced nowadays, and possibly will be as much sought after by our descendants as this is by us. As humorous as any—for humour is not the strong point of these ballads—is "The Young Man's Resolution to the Maiden's Request." He will marry— "When Candlesticks do serve for Bells, And Frying Pans are used for Ladle', Or. when in the Sea, they dig for Wells, And Porridge Pots they take for Cradles : When Maids forget to go a-Maying. And a Man on his back an Ox can cat-ry, Or when the Mice with the Cat be playing, 'Tis then my love and I tril/ marry," The versification here is unusually smooth. There is fun, too, in the next ballad, "The Dumb Maid." The doctor cures her "of the Dumb." He says :— " Oh ! it is the easiest part
That belongs unto my Art, For to cure a woman Of the Dural:, dumb, dumb."
She is cured, but before long the husband goes to the doctor
again " Bat it's beyond the art of man,
Let him do the best be can, For to make a scolding woman Hold her Tongue, tongue, Langue."
Still, he suggests a cure. The husband must take" the Oyl of
Hazel strong"— '' With it anoint her body round.
When she makes the house to sound, So perhaps you may charm Her Tongue, tongue, tongue."
The ballads have the original illustrations given in fm-simile.
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