"Rondeaux, BALLADES,
Chansons dizains, propos menus,
Compte moy qu'ils sont devenuz:
Se faict il plus rien de nouveau?"
CLEMENT MAROT, Dialogue de deux
Amoureux.

"I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily
set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably."
A Winter's Tale, Act iv. sc. 3.




INTRODUCTION



Thirty years have passed, like a watch in the night, since the
earlier of the two sets of verses here reprinted, Ballades in Blue
China, was published. At first there were but twenty-two Ballades;
ten more were added later. They appeared in a little white vellum
wrapper, with a little blue Chinese singer copied from a porcelain
jar; and the frontispiece was a little design by an etcher now
famous.