The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow, reprinted from the Edition of 1628, with an Introduction by J. P. Collier, Esq. 1841. This tract is printed from the oldest known edition, in the possession of Lord Francis Egerton. No other copy of the impression of 1628 is known, but one of the later date of 1639 was bought at Mr. Heber's sale for a sum very little short of 401. The editor assures us that there is no doubt but that Robin Goodfellow, his mad pranks and merry jests, was printed before 1558, for reasons which he assigns. In the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. XXXI. Mr. Wright published an essay on Fairy Mythology, in which he traced Robin Goodfellow from the 13th century, if not earlier. His history seems to have been always popular, so as in later times to have been familiar to the commonalty not only in print, but also on the stage. Shakspere's "Midsummer's Night's Dream," in which Robin figures under the name of Puck, was first printed in 1600, and the editor observes that he was acquainted with this tract, which contains some amusing illustrations of that drama. Two years after, namely in 1602, Chettle wrote a play upon the story of Robin Goodfellow, as appears by two hitherto unnoticed entries in Henslowe's Diary. There is a well-known ballad in Percy's Reliques (iii. 254, edit. 1812), entitled, "The merry Prankes of Robin Goodfellow;" but Mr. Collier reprinted some years ago another production of a similar description, being an unique black-letter history in verse, printed early in the 17th century as a chap book. It was originally illustrated by a woodcut on the title-page, repeated in the body of the ballad, not of the most decent description, and this circumstance led to the tearing away nearly the whole of it, and with the woodcut part of the letter-press also disappeared. It will be found in the introduction, of the present publication, p. ix-xx. Though we cannot afford room for extracts from the prose narrative of Robin's tricks and gambols, we shall give a few specimens of the verses from the second part. Robin, for to delight himself, sung this mad song. "And can the physitian make sicke men well? With sweet-bryer, And bon-fire, And straw-berry wyer, And collumbine. We now add one of his "Civil and vertuous songs," to the tune of Broome. Our latest specimen must be from Robin's Song to the Fairies, while he danced in the midst of them. 66 THE SONG. Round about, little ones, quick and nimble, That doe fillch, blacke, and pinch mayds of the dairyes; Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim, Goe you together, For you can change your shapes You all have trickes, too; Tom shall play, I will sing For all your pleasures. The moone shines faire and bright, Upon their pillows: Men to Death's haven. With your quicke measures: Tom shall play, I will sing A Search for Money: or the lamentable complaint for the loss of the wandering Knight, Monsieur L'Argent. From the original Edition of 1609. Written by William Rowley, Dramatist. This tract is extremely rare, and has been well and carefully edited. "It is," as the editor observes, "a lively, fanciful, minute, and amusing picture of manners; and it includes some curious topographical details chiefly regarding London and its suburbs. The author supposes himself and some other disbanded soldiers to go in search of Money, personified under the figure of the wandering knight.' This quest leads them through various parts of the metropolis and among different classes of society, which are described with humour, spirit, and fidelity.” Of the author, William Rowley, little is known. He was an actor and writer of plays, sometimes solely, sometimes in conjunction with other playwrights. "The Search for Money" is his only production, with a trifling exception, * not written for the stage. We first hear of him in the reign of James the First, and *An Epitaph on Hugh Attwell, a fellow comedian, who died in 1621. See Col. lier's History of the Stage, vol. i. p. 423. pre he was probably living at the breaking out of the Civil Wars. In his face, or prefatory address, he makes allusion to some circumstances of which no notice seems elsewhere preserved, though the playwrights of the day seldom missed anything which could give a point to their dialogue or please the taste of the groundlings. "I know the walkes in Paules are stale to yee; yee could tell extemporally, I am sure, how many paces t'were betweene the quire and the west dore, or (like a Suffolke man) answere at the second question 'dead sure there hath beene many of yee seene measuring the longitude and latitude of Morefields any time this two yeares and upwards (all but in the hard season of the great frost), and then yee slid away the time upon the Thames. Yee have been either eare-or-eye-witnesses, or both, to many madde voiages made of late yeares, both by sea and land-as the travell to Rome with the return in certain daies, the wild morrise to Norrige, the fellowes going back-ward to Barwick, another hopping from Yorke to London, and the transforming of the top of Paules into a stable."* We must give a short specimen of the style and manner of the writer. They go to Westminster Hall in search of Monsieur Money : "We have now with moderate paces attaind the entrance. Lets not be unmannerly; knocke first, or call him by his name; perhaps he will answer if he be there. Ho! Mounsieur Mony! me thinkes I here him answer like a sententious tapster, I cannot be here and there too. Here was a busie house the while; such canvasing of cases, that our case could not yet be heard: here were two brothers at buffets with angells in their fists about the thatch that blew off his house into the others garden, and so spoild a hartichoke here two neighbours together by the purses; the good man Nabuloes goose had laid an eg in good man Corridons barne, and he pleaded possession and the trespasse of the goose that had committed burglary to come in the wrong way: this had bin long in sute, and yet was no date to the end, onely it was thought the goose should die fort and be shar'd betweene them: then one knave was in sute for calling another by his owne name. So busie they were about these and many other such cases, that we could get ne're an atturny to deale for us, so that at length we concluded to be our own heralds, and proclaime our busines our selves. So choosing the strongest voyce amongst us, began our outcry-If any man (women there were none), child, towne or country of what degree, quality, discretion, either wise or ignorant, or howsoever, in this place could tell tidings of a wandring knight, cloth'd in armors of proofe of two especiall coates, either in totall Argent or totall Aurum, his horse trapt sometimes in leather, sometimes in velvet, and somtime embrodery, let him bring certaine notice where he lives, either at liberty or in prison, and he shal have for his paines a thousand duckegs. And this causd a general silence over all the house ther's never an one, either attur. ney or clyent, that could tell what to say till wee came to a more familiar examina tion. "And first we began with the clyents: they swore (as I thinke without perjury they might) that hee was gone from them. They came riding up with him at the beginning of the tearme, and that he did take the paines to accompany us to the Hall, and here hee was; but he is now gon, and be slipt away from us, we know not how. It may be he is yet amongst the crowd. If he think you inquire for him to his indammagement, perhaps hee will shroud himselfe from this discovery (and yee cannot blame him neither to seek his safety). If you could warily observe, I think you should find him hid hereabouts. This sufficeth for the poore clients answer; we now addres our selves to others where our message was stopt up in the mid-way, with non est nobis argentum. Wee have sent out executions for his body, but he is not yet come in: some fragments (wee must confesse) we have of his; marrie, for the substantiall, angelicall, and most dearely beloved Mounsieur him-selfe, they had no acquaintance with him, nor hee residence with them. This * The editor has observed that the transforming the top of St. Paul's into a stable alludes to the exploit of Banks, when he led his horse Morocco to the top of St. Paul's Church. Kemp's Morrice Daunce to Norwich has been edited by the Reverend Mr. Dyce, for the Camden Society; but this reverend gentleman was not aware that Kempe made a similar expedition into France. See p. v. of the Introduction. (contra voluntatem) must serve for an answer; necessity (being but a pettifogger) has no law, law hadde no eares. We had no bels,* what shall we now doe? Desis tere victos? No, not yet; wee'l yet try further, In adversis rebus melius sperare supersis." The Pain and Sorrow of Evil Marriage: from an Unique Copy. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde. 1840. The Editor of this Tract informs us, that there are three early humorous Tracts in verse on the subject of Marriage, by W. de Worde. Only one of them has a date of 1535, but the two others may be assigned to the same period. They have the following titles: 1. A Complaynt of them that be to soone maryed. 2. Here begynneth the Compleynte of them that ben to late maryed. 3. The Payne and Sorrowe of Evyll Maryage. The last of these is printed entire in the present Tract. Of the two former Dr. Dibdin has given a brief account in his edition of Ames (Typ. Ant. ii. 384), and the present editor, in his introduction, has gone more at large into a description of them. The first poem, "The Complaynt of them that be to soone maryed," is written in stanzas of a peculiar kind. They consist of eight lines each, the four first rhyming alternately: the fifth rhyming with the fourth, then a line with a new rhyme, while the seventh line rhymes with the third and fourth, and the eighth with the sixth,-as for example: "About eyght dayes, or soone after Our maryage, the tyme for to passe Sayenge, syster, go get the tyme loste; That I never shall have, quod she, I have now lost my sacramente. For me be to longe with you here, Alas, I ought well for to thynke Cursed be the houre that I ne was It is not eyght dayes sythe our weddynge By god, ye speke to soone of werkynge." The second piece," The Complaynte of them that ben to late maryed," is written, we are informed, with more humour, but is disfigured by indelicacy introduced for the sake of heightening the drollery. It is the lamentation of an elderly gentleman, who, after a youth of riot, had married a young frolicksome wife, and who relates the annoyances and jealousies to which he is hereby exposed. It is written in the ordinary seven-line stanza; of which we give a specimen : "It is said that a man in servytude He ne hathe but only habytude Unto her the whiche well doth hym tende. Who wyll to householde comprehende, And there about studyeth in youth alwayes, He shall have honoure in his olde dayes. *The Editor observes, "We had nebels, &c;" there is, probably, some misprint here, the correctness of which must be left to the reader's ingenuity.-This surely is not difficult. "Law had no eares. We had no bells" to make her hear. In Othello women are sarcastically called "Bells in their parlours,” &c. Some chyldren unto the courtes hauntes, Byenge and sellynge theyr merchaundyses; . I be wayll the tyme that is so spent, Of the third tract, here printed entire, the Editor justly observes, that it will remind the reader in several places of passages in the Prologue of Chaucer's Wife of Bath, and that the writer had our great poet more or less in his eye throughout; so that we may conclude that the piece is original, and therefore more worthy of attention. We hope to give no offence to the female members of the Percy Society by our quotation; but, in truth, we could not find any passage that was not, in some degree, chargeable with the same defect. "An husbande hath greate cause to care For wyfe, for chylde, for stuffe and meyné, And yf ought lacke she wyll bothe swere and stare, He is a wastour and shall never the: And Salomon sayth there be thynges thre, Make husbandes ofte theyr houses to forsake. Wyves be beestes very unchaungeable In theyr desyres, whiche may not staunched be, A wawe calme full of adversyte, Whose blandysshynge endeth with myschaunce, They them rejoyce to se and to be sene, And yf they be foule of loke or countenaunce, And of profyte they take but lytell hede, But looketh soure whan theyr husbandes ayleth ought; And of good mete and drynke they wyll not fayle in dede, What so ever it cost they care ryght nought; Nor they care not how dere it be bought, Rather than they should thereof lacke or mysse, They wolde leever laye some pledge ywys. It is trewe, I tell you yonge men everychone, Women be varyable and love many wordes and stryfe : Who can not appease them lyghtly or anone, Shall have care and sorowe all his lyfe, That woo the tyme that ever he toke a wyfe; And wyll take thought, and often muse How he myght fynde the maner his wyfe to refuse." A Collection of Songs and Ballads relative to the London Prentices and Trades, &c. during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. By Charles Mackay. 1841. The Editor, in his Advertisement, has given his reasons for a departure from his original intention of confining this volume to the Songs mentioned in his title; first, from the number not being so great as was anticipaed, and, secondly, from some being unworthy and some unfit, on |