3 POLITICAL BALLADS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES ANNOTATED BY W. WALKER WILKINS "More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as In Two Vols. VOLUME THE FIRST LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS MDCCCLX PREFACE. NEARLY one hundred and fifty years have elapfed fince the laft Collection of State Poems was publifhed. And that collection, which was comprised originally in two, but afterwards augmented to four volumes, relates only to a period of our history extending over little more than half a centurynamely, from the ufurpation of Cromwell to the acceffion of Queen Anne. But for the fact that the volumes in question are "by various hands," and therefore represent more fully than any others the fatirical wit of the limited period to which they refer, they would scarcely deserve a paffing notice, so very partial and inaccurate are the contents of them. They contain, moreover, few political ballads, properly fo called; but confift almost entirely of long and infipid "poems," chiefly from the pens Buckingham, Rochester, and other exalted perfonages, who exercised in their day confiderable of |
