CATALOGUE

OF

A COLLECTION OF

PRINTED BROADSIDES

IN THE POSSESSION OF

The Society of Antiquaries of London

COMPILED BY

ROBERT LEMON, ESQ., F.S.A.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON.

1866.

PREFACE.

THE collection of papers which forms the subject of the present Catalogue has long been in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. Within the last few years H. R. H. the late Prince Consort, and several other Fellows and Friends of the Society, have enriched it by valuable donations,* but in the year 1765 Bishop Percy referred to several ballads mentioned in the present Catalogue, as being "preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society, in a large folio Collection of Proclamations, &c. made in the reigns of King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James I., &c." (Reliques of English Poetry, ii. 66.) The same collection was mentioned again, in 1781, by Warton, in his History of English Poetry (iii. 145), and many subsequent writers upon our early poetical literature have from time to time referred to some or other of its curious contents.

The words which we have quoted from Bishop Percy connect the Ballads in the possession of the Society with the Proclamations, and down to the year 1852 Proclamations, Ballads, and many other papers printed ballad-wise, on one side of a sheet or strip of paper, which now all pass under the general name of Broadsides, formed one collection in the Society's Library.

The earliest trace in the Society's Minute Books of the formation of this collection occurs under the date of the 9th April, 1756, when Dr. Gifford, of the British Museum, the editor of the Society's edition of Folkes's Tables of Coins, reported to the Council, that under an authority previously given, he had purchased for the Society, at the sale of the

* The names of these Donors will be found commemorated in the Index to the present Catalogue, p. 196.

books of Martin Folkes, their late President, two volumes folio of Proclamations, extending from Edward IV. to James I., at the cost of 91., with one additional Proclamation, probably of a later date, and relating to the coinage, at the price of 168.*

The Society's purchase, through Dr. Gifford, (which no doubt consisted of one of the collections of Proclamations formed by Humphrey Dyson, with some manuscript additions,) led to an act of conspicuous liberality on the part of that singular man Thomas Hollis, of Lincoln's Inn, not then a Member of the Society, but a gentleman, as the entry on the Minutest declares, "who on many occasions has approved himself a well-wisher and kind benefactor to this Society." Mr. Hollis presented, by Professor Ward, who had been his tutor, "a large and curious collection of State and other papers, from the time of Henry VIII. to Charles II. inclusive, in twelve volumes folio, purchased by him 23rd January, 1756, in one lot, No. 941, at the sale of books belonging to Mr. Charles Davis, bookseller in Holborn, deceased, in order to complete the set of Proclamations which he understood were purchased for the Society sometime since by Dr. Gifford, and of which valuable collection he judged this was originally a part. The Society very thankfully acknowledged their great obligations to Mr. Hollis for his very valuable present and kind intention therein, and desired Dr. Ward to acquaint him therewith."‡

These entries sufficiently indicate the way in which the Society became possessed of these collections. In the year 1852 the binding of the fourteen large folio volumes in which they were then contained, and the condition of many of the papers themselves, were found to require attention, and after due consideration it was deemed advisable to divide them into two separate collections. The Proclamations, one of the most valuable collections known to be in existence, were thrown into one independent chronological series, and the Broadsides, * Council Book, vol. i., 1754-1774. † Vol. viii. p. 21.

Ibid.

including the Ballads, into another. The new arrangement was effected under the inspection and personal direction of Robert Lemon, Esq. F.S.A. Every single paper was what is termed laid down, upon fine cartridge paper, with the greatest care, in the way best calculated for its preservation, and finally, Mr. Lemon, in his zeal for the service of the Society, compiled Catalogues both of the Proclamations and the Broadsides. The present publication comprises Mr. Lemon's Catalogue of the latter series passed through the press by himself, and with his own complete and comprehensive index.

It was hoped that he would have consummated his work by prefixing an Introduction. Some present infirmities have interfered with his accomplishment in this respect of his meditated design. His indisposition will probably soon yield to the restorative influences of his well-earned retirement from active duties; but, in the meantime, after considerable delay, the Catalogue is sent forth to the Members, with his concurrence, and with merely the following general observations on its contents.

The particular classes in literature under which these papers seem principally to fall are:

1. GRANTS OF INDULGENCES and other ecclesiastical privileges. Some early printed examples of these documents will be found at pp. 1, 2, and 166.

These will be

2. BALLADS and other compositions in verse. deemed by many persons one of the most remarkable features of the collection. Among those of the reign of Henry VIII. there occur eight ballads, most of them probably unique, in relation to a controversy or contest carried on in verse respecting the character of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex (pp. 2-5). The passages in Percy's Reliques and Warton's History of English Poetry to which we have already referred have relation to these very remarkable productions.

In the same reign is placed another poem of this class, which has conduced to the establishment of the authorship of that singular prose satire, a kind of English Reynard the Fox,