• Ballads
  • Essays
    The ballad business Methodology Texts, tunes and pictures Audiences, performances and recordings The Musicians reflect Collectors and collections Broadside ballads and the origins of pop
  • Project
    The history of the project Project participants Funding and Partners Acknowledgements
  • Website
    A user’s guide to the website Conventions of presentation Licensing and citation Contact us
  • Search

Top pop from seventeenth-century England. Broadside ballads were single-sheet songs that sold for a penny a piece. This website concentrates on over 100 resoundingly successful examples that you can investigate through recordings, images and a wealth of other materials. Whether you are interested in music, art, love, gender, tragedy, politics, family life, crime, history, humour or death, you will find something to engage you here. See also User’s Guide.

Vere, Thomas   Emotions - Love   Fiddle  

Showing 1 to 8 of 8

13 The rarest Ballad that ever was seen,/ Of the Blind beggers daughter of Bednall-green [Euing 293]
15 The Lamentable and Tragicall History of Titus An-/dronicus [Folger L252a]
27 A Pleasant Song of the Valiant Deeds of Chivalry,/ Atchieved by that Noble Knight Sir Guy of Warwick [Roxburghe 3.50-1]
28 A most excellent Song of the love of young Palmus, and faire Sheldra, with their unfortunate love [Pepys 1.350-51]
38 A worthy example of a vertuous wife, who fed her father with her own milk [Roxburghe 3.48-49]
49 A constant Wife, a kinde Wife,/ A loving Wife, and a fine Wife [Pepys 1.390-91]
63 A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious/ Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ [Roxburghe 1.258-59]
69 Ile never Love thee more/ being a true Love Song between a young/ Man and a Maid [Pepys 3.266]

Top Fives

Click any item to filter the ballad list.
Use the search function to find additional material.

Authors

  • Anonymous  (7)
  • Lloyd, Richard  (1)

Publishers

  • Clark, John  (8)
  • Coles (aka Coules), Fra...  (8)
  •   Vere, Thomas  (8)
  • Wright, John III  (8)
  • Gosson, Henry  (7)

Topics

  •   Emotions - love  (8)
  • Gender - femininity  (8)
  • Gender - masculinity  (7)
  • Gender - courtship  (5)
  • History - ancient/mytho...  (5)

Instruments

  •   Fiddle  (8)
  • Cittern  (5)
  • Drum  (2)
  • Curtal  (1)
  • Double bass  (1)

Performers

  • Lewin, Giles  (8)
  • Vitale, Steno  (5)
  • Banks, Steve  (4)
  • Davis, Jub  (3)
  • Watts, Andy  (3)

Tunes

  • Chevy Chase  (1)
  • Fortune my foe  (1)
  • Guy of Warwick  (1)
  • I'll never love thee mo...  (1)
  • Lie lulling beyond thee  (1)

Woodcuts

  • Couple with leafy fan  (2)
  • Akimbo man with clouds  (1)
  • Blind beggar with dog a...  (1)
  • Christ's Resurrection  (1)
  • Countryman with staff  (1)

Holding Libraries

  • Pepys Library, Magdalen...  (8)
  • No known copy  (7)
  • Bodleian Library, Oxfor...  (6)
  • British Library  (6)
  • National Library of Sco...  (5)

About the Project | Funding and Partners | Licensing and citation

© The 100 Ballads Project 2023