A NEW BALLAD.

[BALLAD.]

Published by London c. ?, 1722

About this Item

Folio broadside, approx. 325 x 190mm; a bit creased, and tipped onto a later strip of paper; but with generous margins. Unrecorded first edition. A political ballad of ten three-line stanzas, beginning: 'Come ye Jacks, and ye Whigs, and ye Tories, draw near'. The poem has to do with the difficult relationship between George I and the Prince of Wales, which led to the King's appointment of a council of regency during his visits to Hanover, rather than naming the Prince as regent. A reference to the Earl of Macclesfield in the third stanza sets the date of this ballad at some point after his acquiring his title in November 1721, and before his impeachment in 1725; there are also references to two other principal figures in the government, Viscount Townshend and Robert Walpole ('Bob'), his brother-in-law. The ballad concludes with lines on the regency question: If the K g will his Wit, not his Memory shew, And discard his own Friends, and his Father's avow, They will let him be one of the R----cy now, Which no Body can deny There is a manuscript copy in the Portland papers at Nottingham (found with other documents of the 1720s), and one in Harley MS 7318 in the British Library. The ballad was also reprinted in A new miscellany of court songs, part II (1728: Huntington copy only in ESTC), and in Robin's panegyrick, or the Norfolk miscellany, part I (1729), but this version, almost certainly earlier than either, is not listed in either Foxon or ESTC.

Seller Inventory # 23606

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A NEW BALLAD.
• Publisher: London c. ?
• Publication Date: 1722
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry