there be any Beauties in the Book, 'tis certainly his Bufinefs to find them out; and if there ben't - why, he can't say I cheated him: I never pretended to give him any thing more than an old Song. But as the greatest Part of this Book is not my own, and feveral things in it written Ages ago, I may, I hope, without either Vanity or Offence enter upon the Praifes of Ballads, and shew their Antiquity. I would not be thought to ridicule any thing in Sacred Writ, and therefore I will pass over in Silence, what I might Jay of the Times of Mofes, Jephthah and David, and go directly amongst the Pagans. And here the very Prince of Poets, old Homer, if we may trust ancient Records, was nothing more than a blind Ballad-finger, who writ Songs of the Siege of Troy, and the Adventures of Ulyffes; and playing the Tunes upon his Harp, fung from Door to Door, till at his Death fomebody thought fit to collect all his Ballads, and by a little connecting A 3 necting 'em, gave us the Iliad and Od fes, which fince that Time have been much admired. And in thofe very Day if we may trust the fucceeding Poets, Entertainment was thought comple unless whilst the Company was carouzin there was a Harper in the Room fingi old Songs; at least written upon old Su jects. Thus we find Virgil in the A count he gives of Dido's treating A neas. -Citharâ crinitus fopas Perfonat auratâ, docuit quæ maximus Atlas And this the Archbishop of Cambray h imitated, when he makes Calypfo enterta Telemachus and Mentor in the Grot His Words are thefe. "At the fame time were brought "Baskets, all forts of Fruits promif by the Spring, and ripened by t "Autumn. And then Four youthf Nymphs began to fing. "they fung, the Combat of the Go "again At fi PREFAC E. V A the Giants; then the Amours piter and Semele; the Birth of s, and old Silenus's Care in Hippomenes and him ; ta's Race; he who was vanby the enticing Hue of Apom the Hefperian Garden cull'd. aft the Trojan War was also Ulyffes's Fights and Counfels to Heaven: The chief of all Nymphs, Leucothoe, to thofe Voices join'd the sweet us her Lute. Ed be endless, to prove that the pets whofe Buftos I have put ontifpiece, were Ballad-Writers: elfe can we make of Pindar's Anacreon would never fit down without his Bottle and his race could drop the Praifes of rd Mæcenas, to fing the AdvenEs Journey to Brandufium, and he met with from a Servant Satyr 5. Wench Wench in a Country Alehouse; and this Song of his it was, which gave Occafron to a modern Ballad amongst us, called, The Coy Cook-maid. Cowley has left too many Works of this Kind to need quoting; and Suckling's Wedding will never be forgot. The Ballad-Makers are a more ancient, more numerous, and more noble Society than the boafted Free-Mafons; and Duke upon Duke will witness, that People of Confiderable Fashion have thought it no Difgrace to enroll themselves in this Worshipful Society. Nor have thefe antique Songs ever been without their Admirers. When Thebes was fack'd, Pindar was Spar'd for the Sake of his Works; and Alexander wept, to think his Age did not afford fo clever a Ballad finger as Homer had been, to record his Actions to Pofterity. It was the Custom of thefe Song Enditers thus to tranfmit to their Children the glorious Actions which happen'd in PREFACE. vij their Days. And I believe it never was ufed more than amongst the English in Times of old. For we may very reasonably fuppofe, that one half at least of their Works are loft; and we have ftill one half of whatever is remarkable in Hiftory, handed down to us in Ballads. The Ufe of thefe Songs too is very great. I have known Children, who never would have learn'd to read, had they not took a Delight in poring over Jane Shore, or Fair Rofamond; and feveral fine Hiftorians are indebted to Hiftorical Ballads for all their Learning. For had not Curiofity, and a Defire of comparing thefe Poetical Works with ancient Records, first incited them to it, they never would have given themselves the Trouble of diving into History: And in this I have endeavoured to make our old Songs ftill more useful, by the Introductions which I have prefix'd to 'em ; and in which is pointed out what is Fact and what Fiction. Should my Defign Jucceed, a Second Collection, and in which there are feveral Songs more antique than the |