"The Pack of Autolycus" is an extraordinary collection of seventeenth-century broadside ballads, meticulously compiled to showcase the strange and marvelous tales that captivated the public imagination during the Stuart era. Borrowing its title from the peddler of "unconsidered trifles" in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," this work gathers a diverse array of sensationalist news sheets, poetic narratives, and street songs that served as the popular media of the time.
The collection focuses on the miraculous and the macabre, featuring accounts of monstrous births, celestial portents, ghostly visitations, and remarkable providences. These ballads offer a rare and vivid window into the social, religious, and cultural anxieties of early modern England, bridging the gap between formal literature and the raw energy of street-level folklore. By preserving these ephemeral prints, the work provides invaluable insight into the history of journalism, popular belief, and the evolution of the English ballad tradition. "The Pack of Autolycus" remains an essential resource for scholars of English history and literature, as well as any reader fascinated by the bizarre and wonderful stories that defined an era of rapid social change and enduring superstition.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
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