The whiche God maynteyn evermore durynge, And save the Maier and alle the worthi Cite; And that is amys God brynge to amendynge, That Anglond may reioise to concord and unite. * * * * * Neither of the ensuing articles, the whole of which are the production of the indefatigable Lydgate, can possibly be assigned to its proper date; and they are therefore arranged in the following order. 1. _A Balade sent by a Poursyant to the Shirreves of London, acompanyed with theire Bretherne upon Mayes Daye, at Busshopes Wod, at an honurable Dyner, ech of them bringginge his Dysshe._ This Ballad, which occurs in Ashmole's Collection of Manuscripts, is introduced from its having been addressed to the Sheriffs of London; but it contains little that is worthy of attention. 2. _London Lickpenny._ Of the numerous Ballads composed by 'The Monk of Bury,' this is perhaps the most curious and the best known; and, from its presenting a great deal of information relative to the Metropolis in the fifteenth century, it is of considerable interest. Two copies exist in MS. in the British Museum; one in the Harleian MS. 367, which is printed in Noorthouck's and Dr. Pugh's History of London, as well as in several other works; the other, in Stow's hand-writing, in the Harleian MS. 542: and as they differ very materially from each other, a copy of each is inserted. To this Ballad, it has been thought right to add another, by the same writer, which has never been before printed, on a very similar subject; namely, 3. _Upon the Emptiness of his Purse,--_ In which he treats this, perhaps the greatest of all human misfortunes, since it prevents the alleviation of almost all others, with singular address. The subject seems to have been a favourite one with our early poets; for there is a Ballad with nearly the same title by Chaucer; and another is printed in 'The Boke of St. Albans.' 4. _On Forked Head Dresses._ The head-dresses of females in the reign of Henry the Sixth closely resembled the _cauchoises_ still worn by those of Normandy; and which excited the displeasure of Dan John in so great a degree as to have induced him to invoke the aid of his Muse in effecting their abolition. It seems no subject escaped that eternal scribbler's attention; and if his abilities had equalled his disposition, he would probably have become the Juvenal of his age. Upon this occasion, however, he appears to have soared on rather a higher wing than usual; and the moral of his lay is the truism which has since been so beautifully expressed, that loveliness "Is when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most." 5. _On Fraudulent Millers and Bakers._ This short Ballad would appear, from the following passage in Fabian's Chronicle, to have been written in the 15th of Edw. IV. A^{o} 1475, if it were not, that though the date of Lydgate's death has never been precisely ascertained, yet it is scarcely possible he could have lived to that year.