"Men and children, maids and wives, 'Tis not too late to mend your lives: Midnight feastings are great wasters, Servants' riots undoe masters. When you heare this ringing bell, Thinke it is your latest knell: Foure a clock, the cock is crowing, I must to my home be going: When all other men doe rise, Then must I shut up mine eyes." The exceeding popularity of the _Bellman of London_ induced Samuel Rowlands to bring out his _Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell, his Defence and Answere to the Belman of London, discovering the long-concealed Originall and Regiment of Rogues when they first began to take head, and how they have succeeded, &c._ Printed for John Budge, &c., 4to. 1610. The object of this publication was to expose Dekker's _Bellman_, which Rowlands says was only a "vamp up" of Harman's _Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors_; but Harman himself was only a borrower, and the origin of his work is _The Fraternitye of Vacabondes_, printed prior to 1565. Greene's _Ground-work of Coney-catching_ is another work which may be pointed out as having been taken from the same original. But as these tracts do not contain any "bellman's songs," I need not now dwell upon them. Among the many curious musical works printed in London at the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the following century, I can scarcely point out a more desirable volume than one with this title: _Melismata, Musical Phansies fitting the Court, City, and Country Humours, to three, four, and five voices_: _To all delightful, except to the spiteful; To none offensive, except to the pensive._ London, printed by William Stansby, &c., 4to. 1611. The work is in five divisions, viz., 1. Court Varieties; 2. Citie Rounds; 3. Citie Conceits; 4. Country Rounds; 5. Country Pastimes. Among the "City Conceits" we have the following: "A BEL-MAN'S SONG. "Maides to bed, and cover coale, Let the mouse out of her hole; Crickets in the chimney sing, Whilst the little bell doth ring: If fast asleepe, who can tell When the clapper hits the bell." But perhaps the most curious collection of bellman's songs that has been handed down to us, is a small tract of twelve leaves entitled _The Common Calls, Cries, and Sounds of the Bel-Man; or Diverse Verses to put us in minde of our Mortality_, 12mo. Printed at London, 1639. This excessively rare and interesting "set of rhymes" is now before me, and from them I have extracted a few specimens of the _genuine_ old songs of the London bellman of past times:-- "THE BEL-MAN'S SOUNDS. "_For Christmas Day._ "Remember all that on this morne, Our blessed Saviour Christ was borne; Who issued from a Virgin pure, Our soules from Satan to secure; And patronise our feeble spirit, That we through him may heaven inherit." "_For New-Yeares Day._