The following collections may be consulted:
“Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II to the Revolution,” collected by John Ritson, revised edition by W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1877.
“Political Songs of England from the reign of John to that of Edward II,” edited by Thomas Wright; Camden Society, London, 1839.
“Specimens of Lyric Poetry composed in England in the reign of Edward I,” ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1842.
“Reliquiæ antiquæ, scraps from ancient MSS. illustrating chiefly early English literature,” ed. Th. Wright and J. O. Halliwell, 2 vols.
“Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the xvth Century,” edited by Thomas Wright; Percy Society, London, 1847.
“Political Poems and Songs, from Edward III to Richard III,” edited by Thomas Wright; Rolls Series, London, 1859, 1861.
“Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” edited by F. J. Furnivall; Early English Text Society, London, 1866.
“Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum,” by Henry L. D. Ward, vol. i., London, 1887. See as to Robin Hood ballads, pp. 516–23.
“Bishop Percy’s folio MS.—Ballads and Romances,” edited by J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society, London, 1867.
“The English and Scottish popular Ballads,” edited by Prof. F. J. Child, Boston, U.S.A., 1882, ff.
Many satirical songs are to be found in those collections on the vices of the times, the exaggerations of fashion, the ill government of the king, the Lollards, the friars, the women, with some songs in a higher key urging the king to defend the national honour and to make war. See for example Dr. Furnivall’s collection, p. 4. In this work is printed the song referred to in our text on the death of the Duke of Suffolk (pp. 6–11): {438}
Here folowythe a Dyrge made by the comons of Kent in the tyme of ther rysynge, when Jake Cade was theyr cappitayn: