Yet lives he lastingly.
Those bells that call'd him so,
'Turne again, Whittington,'
Call you back may moe
To live so in London."

This ballad, as it stands here with the exception of the last stanza,
was reprinted in _A Collection of Old Ballads_, 1823, vol. i. p. 130.

This ballad is the original of all the later ballads, although the
titles have been greatly varied. The Roxburghe ballad (vol. iii. p. 58)
is dated in the British Museum Catalogue 1641[?]. Its full title is as
follows:--

"London's Glory and Whittington's Renown, or a Looking Glass for
Citizens of London, being a remarkable story how Sir Richard Whittington
(a poor boy bred up in Lancashire) came to be three times Lord Mayor of
London in three several kings' reigns, and how his rise was by a cat,
which he sent by a venture beyond sea. Together with his bountiful gifts
and liberality given to this honourable City, and the vast sums of money
he lent the King to maintain the wars in France; and how at a great
Feast, to which he invited the King, the Queen, and the Nobility, he
generously burnt the writings and freely forgave his Majesty the whole
Debt. Tune of 'Dainty, come thou to me.' London: Printed for R. Burton,
at the Horse Shoe in West Smithfield."

The bulk of the ballad is the same as Richard Johnson's, but the
following first stanza is added, the original first stanza becoming the
second:--