Songs imported from plays or operas were not likely to become popular on board ship until after they had obtained general popularity on shore. One of the characteristics of the ballad literature of the last quarter of the seventeenth century is the great increase in the number of ballads describing the lives, adventures, loves, marriages, meetings and partings of sailors. Most of them were written for consumption on shore, but some doubtless became popular at sea. The printed collection of ballads contain many specimens. In the _Bagford Ballads_ there are reprints of _The Mariner’s Misfortune_, a tale of a shipwrecked sailor and a maiden who for his sake went to sea in disguise; _The Seaman’s Adieu to his pretty Betty_, and _The Fair Maid’s Choice_, which is ‘Of all sorts of tradesmen a seaman for me’ (_Bagford Ballads_, i. 247, 274, 289). In the _Roxburghe Ballads_ there are several groups of ballads of the same nature. The sixth volume contains, _The Gallant Seaman’s Return from the Indies_; _The West Country Nymph_; _The Fair and Loyal Maid of Bristow_; and _The Seaman’s Sorrowful Bride_ (pp. 415, 441, 443, 444). The seventh includes a still larger number: _The Mariner’s Delight, or the Seaman’s seven Wives_; _Faithful Jemmy and constant Susan_; _The Gallant Seaman’s Resolution (whose full intent was to try his fortune at sea, and at his return marry his landlady)_; _Love and Loyalty_; _The two Loyal Lovers_; _A Farewell to Gravesend_; _The Valiant Seaman’s happy Return to his Love_; _The Seaman’s Advice to his pretty Betty, living near Wapping_; _The Sailor’s Departure from his dearest Love_; _The Constant Maiden’s Resolution_; _Loyal Constancy, or the Seaman’s Love-Letter_; _Virtue the Reward of Constancy_; _The Faithful Lover’s Farewell_; _The Valiant Virgin, or Philip and Mary_; _The Seaman’s Dolefull Farewell_; _The Seaman’s Folly, in marrying one so quickly for what he has cause to repent at leisure_; _The Seaman’s Renown in Winning his Fair Lady_ (pp. 490-559). The eighth volume gives us: _The Seaman’s Frolic, or a Cooler for the Captain_; _The Seaman’s Complaint for his unkind Mistress of Wapping_; _The Love-sick Maid of Wapping_; _I father a Child that’s None of my own, being the Seaman’s Complaint_, &c.; _A Mad Marriage, or the Female Fancy of Deptford_ (xciii. 433-443). There are also three verses of _A Kiss of a Seaman is worth two of Another_ (_ib._ pp. 678, 861).