there be any Beauties in the Book, 'tis certainly his Bufinefs to find them out; and if there ben't- why, he can't fay 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 fhew 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 go directly amongst the Pa

gans.

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 Odyffes, which fince that Time have been fo much admired. And in thofe very Days, if we may trust the fucceeding Poets, no Entertainment was thought compleat, unless whilft the Company was carousing, there was a Harper in the Room finging old Songs; at least written upon old Subjects. Thus we find Virgil in the Account he gives of Dido's treating E

neas.

Citharâ crinitus fopas Perfonat auratâ, docuit quæ maximus Atlas Hic canit.

And this the Archbishop of Cambray has imitated, when he makes Calypfo entertain Telemachus and Mentor in the Grotto. His Words are thefe.

"At the fame time were brought in "Baskets, all forts of Fruits promised by the Spring, and ripened "Autumn. And then Four

by the youthful

At first

Nymphs began to fing. "they fung, the Combat of the Gods

against

"against the Giants; then the Amours of Jupiter and Semele; the Birth of Bacchus, and old Silenus's Care in

educating him; Hippomenes and

"Atalanta's Race; he who was vanquifh'd by the enticing Hue of Apples from the Hefperian Garden cull'd. "And laft the Trojan War was also 'fung, Ulyffes's Fights and Counfels "rais'd to Heaven: The chief of all

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"the Nymphs, Leucothoe, to thofe
"melodious Voices join'd the
the sweet-
"nefs of her Lute.

It would be endless, to prove that the feveral Poets whofe Buftos I have put in my Frontispiece, were Ballad-Writers: For what else can we make of Pindar's Lyrics? Anacreon would never fit down contented without his Bottle and his Song. Horace could drop the Praifes of Auguftus and Mæcenas, to fing the Adventures of his Journey to Brandufium, and the Baulk he met with from a Servant

Wench in a Country Alehouse; and this Song of his it was, which gave Occafion 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

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 Use 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 themfelves the Trouble of diving into Hiftory: 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 fucceed, a Second Collection, and in which there are feveral Songs more antique than

the