We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and jovial Love-song, which redeems the close of the volume. It has the gaiety and _abandon_ of John Fletcher’s and Richard Brome’s. We have never yet met it elsewhere. It was probably written about 1642. The reserved song in Part i., p. 153 (Supplement, p. 3), seems to be a vile parody on it, in the coarse fashion of those persons who disgraced the cause of the Cavaliers. The rank and file were often base, and their brutality is evidenced in the songs which we have been obliged to degrade to the Supplement. It was certainly popular before 1659, for we find it quoted as furnishing the tune to “A proper new ballad (25 verses) on the Old Parliament,” beginning “Good Morrow, my neighbours all,” with a varying burden:— _Hei ho, my hony,_ _My heart shall never rue,_ _Four and twenty now for your Mony,_ _And yet a hard penny worth too._ (_Rump_, 1662 ii, 26.) The music is in Playford’s _English Dancing Master_, 1686. Page 116 [Supp. 14]. _She lay up to, &c._ Five years earlier, in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 56; 1661, p. 58. With the original, in _M. D., C._, p. 300, compare the similar disappointment, by Cleveland, “The Myrtle-Grove” (_Poems_, p. 160, edit. 1661.) Page 149 [253]. _If that you will hear, &c._ This is the same, except a few variations, as “Will you please to hear a new ditty?” in our _Westminster-Drollery_, 1671, i. 88; Appendix to ditto, pp. xxxvi-vii (compare the coarser verses, p. 368 in present volume, and “Upon the biting of Fleas,” in _Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656; Reprint, p. 64.) [We here close our Notes to the “Extra Songs” of _Merry Drollery_, 1661. But we have still some Additional Notes, on what is common to the editions of 1661, 1670, and 1691 (as promised in _M. D., C._, p. 363).] § 2.—ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE MERRY DROLLERY, COMPLEAT. (_Common to all editions, 1661, ’70, ’91, and 1875._) “A pretty slight Drollery.” (_Henry IV._, pt. 2. Act ii. Sc. 1.) MERRY DROLLERY, Complete. OR, A COLLECTION { Jovial POEMS, Of { Merry SONGS, { Witty DROLLERIES, Intermixed with Pleasant _Catches_. The First Part. Collected by _W.N._ _C.B._ _R.S._ _J.G._ LOVERS of WIT. LONDON, Printed for _Simon Miller_, at the Star, at the West End of St. _Pauls_, 1670. _Title-page to 1670 Edition._