Antiquaries are by no means agreed as to what is the song of _Arthur-a-Bradley_, there alluded to, for it so happens that there are no less than three different songs about this same Arthur-a-Bradley. Ritson gives one of them in his _Robin Hood_, commencing thus:— See you not Pierce the piper. He took it from a black-letter copy in a private collection, compared with, and very much corrected by, a copy contained in _An Antidote against Melancholy_, _made up in pills compounded of witty Ballads_, _jovial Songs_, _and merry Catches_, 1661. Ritson quotes another, and apparently much more modern song on the same subject, and to the same tune, beginning,— All in the merry month of May. It is a miserable composition, as may be seen by referring to a copy preserved in the third volume of the Roxburgh Ballads. There is another song, the one given by us, which appears to be as ancient as any of those of which Arthur O’Bradley is the hero, and from its subject being a wedding, as also from its being the only Arthur O’Bradley song that we have been enabled to trace in broadside and chap-books of the last century, we are induced to believe that it may be the song mentioned in the old ballad, which is supposed to have been written in the reign of Charles I. An obscure music publisher, who about thirty years ago resided in the Metropolis, brought out an edition of _Arthur O’Bradley’s Wedding_, with the prefix ‘Written by Mr. Taylor.’ This Mr. Taylor was, however, only a low comedian of the day, and the ascribed authorship was a mere trick on the publisher’s part to increase the sale of the song. We are not able to give any account of the hero, but from his being alluded to by so many of our old writers, he was, perhaps, not altogether a fictitious personage. Ben Jonson names him in one of his plays, and he is also mentioned in Dekker’s _Honest Whore_. Of one of the tunes mentioned in the song, viz., _Hence_, _Melancholy_! we can give no account; the other,—_Mad Moll_, may be found in Playford’s _Dancing-Master_, 1698: it is the same tune as the one known by the names of _Yellow Stockings_ and the _Virgin Queen_, the latter title seeming to connect it with Queen Elizabeth, as the name of Mad Moll does with the history of Mary, who was subject to mental aberration. The words of _Mad Moll_ are not known to exist, but probably consisted of some fulsome panegyric on the virgin queen, at the expense of her unpopular sister. From the mention of _Hence_, _Melancholy_, and _Mad Moll_, it is presumed that they were both popular favourites when _Arthur O’Bradley’s Wedding_ was written. A good deal of vulgar grossness has been at different times introduced into this song, which seems in this respect to be as elastic as the French chanson, _Cadet Rouselle_, which is always being altered, and of which there are no two copies alike. The tune of _Arthur O’Bradley_ is given by Mr. Chappell in his _Popular Music_.]