Collections of Songs, depending chiefly on the popularity of such as are already in vogue, or of others that promise fairly to please the reader, are necessarily of all books the most liable to receive alterations when re-issued. Thus we ourselves possess half-a-dozen editions of _the Roundelay_, and also of the _Bullfinch_, both undated eighteenth-century songsters; each copy containing a dozen or more of Songs not to be found in the others. Our _Merry Drollery_ is a case in point. As already mentioned, there is absolutely no difference between the edition of 1670 and 1691 of _Merry Drollery, Compleat_, except the title-page. It was a well-understood trade stratagem, to re-issue the unsold sheets, those of 1670, with a freshly-dated title-page, as in 1691; so to catch the seekers after novelty by their most tempting lure. Even the two pages of “List of New Books” (reprinted conscientiously by ourselves in _M. D., C._, pp. 358, 359) are identical in both! We take credit beforehand for the readers’ satisfaction at our providing such a _Table of First Lines_, as we hereafter give, that may enable him easily and convincedly to understand the alterations made from the 1661 edition of _Merry Drollery_, both parts, when it was re-issued in a single volume, paged consecutively, in 1670 and 1691. It is more difficult to understand _why_ the changes were made, than thus to see what they were. 1. It could not have been from modesty: although some objectionable pieces were omitted, others, quite as open to censure, were newly admitted instead. 2. Scarcely could it have been that as political satires they were out of date (except in the case of the Triumph over The Gang—England’s Woe—and Admiral Dean’s Funeral: our pp. 198, 218, 206); for in the later volume are found other songs on events contemporary with these, which, being rightly considered to be of abiding interest, were retained. 3. It was not that the songs rejected were too common, and easily attainable; for they are almost all of extreme rarity, and now-a-days not procurable elsewhere. 4. It must have been a whim that ostracised them, and accepted novelties instead! At any rate, here they are! As in the case of the sheet from _Westminster-Drollery_, 1674 (see p. 177), readers possess the Extra Songs of both early and late editions, along with all that are common to both, and this without confusion.