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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.

Drum   Lewin, Giles   Vitale, Steno   Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge University  

Showing 1 to 8 of 8

15 The Lamentable and Tragicall History of Titus An-/dronicus [Folger L252a]
52 England New Bell-man:/ Ringing into all peoples ears Gods dreadful/ Judgements against this Land and Kingdom [Bodleian Wood 401 (159v-160r)]
63 A most godly and comfortable Ballad of the glorious/ Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ [Roxburghe 1.258-59]
77 The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham. a Gentleman borne in/ Scotland [Crawford 714]
102 Robin Hood newly reviv'd [Bodleian Wood 401 (27v-28r)]
106 A Strange Banquet;/ OR,/ The Devils Entertainment by Cook Laurel [Pepys 4.284]
110 The doleful Dance, and Song of Death; Intituled, Dance after my Pipe [Pepys 2.62]
113 A New little Northren Song called,/ Under and over, over and under [Pepys 1.264-65]

Top Fives

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Authors

  • Anonymous  (6)
  • Hill, Thomas  (1)
  • Jonson, Ben (1573-1637)  (1)

Publishers

  • Clark, John  (7)
  • Coles (aka Coules), Fra...  (7)
  • Gilbertson, William  (6)
  • Gosson, Henry  (6)
  • Grismond, John  (6)

Topics

  • Bodies - injury  (4)
  • Environment - landscape  (4)
  • Gender - femininity  (4)
  • Gender - masculinity  (4)
  • Emotions - fear  (3)

Instruments

  •   Drum  (8)
  • Fiddle  (6)
  • Cittern  (3)
  • Curtal  (1)
  • Mug and spoon  (1)

Performers

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

Tunes

  • Cook Laurel  (1)
  • Fortune my foe  (1)
  • Lord Willoughby  (1)
  • O man in desperation  (1)
  • Robin Hood and the stra...  (1)

Woodcuts

  • Bellman with lamp  (1)
  • Christ in glory  (1)
  • Christ's Resurrection  (1)
  • Country couple (spotty...  (1)
  • Countryman with staff  (1)

Holding Libraries

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

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