Quaint Gleanings From Ancient Poetry:


A COLLECTION OF CURIOUS POETICAL COMPOSITIONS
OF THE XVIth, XVIIth, AND XVIIIth CENTURIES.



EDITED From MSS. and Rare Printed Originals
BY EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.




INTRODUCTION.



The following curious collection I have gathered together during
several years' reading in out-of-the-way corners. Manuscripts, in
public and private libraries; old books picked up on dusty bookstalls,
or carried away as prizes from the battlefield of the auction-room;
even pencillings on the inside of tattered bindings,--all have been
laid under contribution. I trust this medley, or _pot-pourri_, of
snatches of song, grave and gay, will prove as interesting to my
readers as they have been to myself. They claim attention on various
grounds: some are the works of well-known men, such as Anthony Munday
and Warren Hastings; some are bitter political squibs--such, for
instance, as the "Satyre against the Scots," page 47; some, again, are
exquisitely beautiful, as "The Dirge," page 53. A few have appeared in