The case was different among our ancestors in the memorable
period of the struggle for liberty that commenced in the reign of
Charles I. The Puritans had the pulpit on their side, and found it
a powerful instrument. The Cavaliers had the song writers on
theirs, and found them equally effective. And the song and ballad
writers of that day were not always illiterate versifiers. Some of
them were the choicest wits and most accomplished gentlemen of the
nation. As they could not reach the ears of their countrymen by
the printed book, the pamphlet, or the newspaper, nor mount the
pulpit and dispute with Puritanism on its own ground and in its own
precincts, they found the song, the ballad, and the epigram more
available among a musical and song-loving people such as the
English then were, and trusted to these to keep up the spirit of
loyalty in the evil days of the royal cause, to teach courage in
adversity, and cheerfulness in all circumstances, and to ridicule
the hypocrites whom they could not shame, and the tyrants whom they
could not overthrow. Though many thousands of these have been
preserved in the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, and in
other collections which have been freely ransacked for the
materials of the following pages, as many thousands more have
undoubtedly perished. Originally printed as broadsides, and sold
for a halfpenny at country fairs, it used to be the fashion of the
peasantry to paste them up in cupboards, or on the backs of doors,
and farmers' wives, as well as servant girls and farm labourers,
who were able to read, would often paste them on the lids of their
trunks, as the best means of preserving them.
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