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This is the ballad called "Little Mousegrove," It was adapted later in the 19th century and became a popular folk song in Early America. | "The earliest known reference to this famous song occurs in Francis Beaumont’s play, The knight of the burning pestle, probably first performed in 1607. Merryweather, a ballad-obsessive who communicates mainly by singing snatches from songs, delivers lines from the Lamentable ditty as he prevents his long-suffering wife from entering their house (perhaps his performance is triggered by recollections of Lord Barnet’s climactic arrival at his Lady’s adulterous ‘bower’)." | Source Defining a Ballad A ballad was a song printed on one side of a sheet of paper for commercial sale. You see them as a staple of English culture in the 1600s right into the 19th century, even though the format is quite different by Victorian England. In Shakespeare’s lifetime, the standard for early modern ballad is evolving, so they are different at the beginning of his life than at his end. Our guests go on to distinguish ballads from folk songs, saying that folk songs are more orally transmitted rather than printed for sale. The term "folk song" isn't really contemporary to Shakespeare, either, not showing up in the vernacular until the 19th century. Certainly Shakespeare's lifetime had folk songs, but they weren't called by that name. Interestingly, some of the ballads that were recovered and reproduced for 100 Ballads Project represent the earliest versions of songs that would later become folk songs in Early America. Several of the songs on 100Ballads are the earliest known versions of songs that later became well known folk songs in 19-20th centuries in UK and America. #37, “Little Mousegrove” found in a much reduced form in early America “Little Mattie Grove” Lots of continuity and printed commercial broadsides and later folk songs. This is a ballad known as "Dead Man's Song", it was a popular tune for Shakespeare's lifetime (we play part of it in this episode and you can hear the entire song here) | This ballad would go on to become a folk song in the 19th century, but it was short lived. The 100 Ballads project describes this ballad as "This was one of early-modern England’s best-loved religious ballads. It was probably the most widely known combined vision of heaven and hell to circulate in the period, with the exception of the Bible. Editions were also published in the eighteenth century, and the song appeared in the 1810 edition of Thomas Evan’s collection, Old ballads. It did not, however, survive as a folksong." | Source Folks Songs and Ditties In Henry IV Part 1 as well as Much Ado About Nothingm characters talk about a song called a “dittie." Our guests this week distinguish a dittie from a ballad, and indeed from a foik song, by drawing some detailed boundaries around these definitions. "[To give you a rough theory]....if you say ballad you mean specifically the product of something that’s published, quite long, and available publicly. During Shakespeare’s...
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