Add MS 74734 K

K. Two anonymous Jacobean satirical ballads; circa 1613-1615. The first, 'A Cambridge Madrigall confuting Oxford Ballad' (ff. 53-53v) in sixteen eight-line stanzas, which begins 'A Ballade late was made', is a reply to Richard Corbett's satire of March 1614/5, beginning 'It is not yet a fortnight since' (for which, with variants, see Crum I1841, 1844, 1853). It has been attributed to 'Lakes', identified as the William Lakes who matriculated from Clare Hall in Easter Term 1615: see The Poems of Richard Corbett, ed. J. A. W. Bennett and H. R. Trevor-Roper, Oxford, 1955, p. 109. The second (f. 54) concerns the murder in 1613 of Sir Thomas Overbury, in which Robert Carr, later Earl of Somerset, was implicated. This, which begins 'There was an old lad rode on an old padd', is headed 'A proper newe Ballade to the tune of whoope do me no harme good man or the cleane contrarye way w^ch yo^w please as yo^r voyce and the same cann both agree'. At the end occurs a fictitious imprint, now imperfect: 'Imprinted at london in paules churche yard at the signe of the yellowe band & Cuffes by Adam Arsnicke & Robert Rosacre & are to be sold at the signe of . . .'. A putative third item, now lost owing to mutilation of the second leaf, may be inferred from the docket to have been the brief squib of 1613 or later beginning 'I see you are / Good Mounsieur Carre'. Purchased at Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 11 May 2000, lot 11.

ff. 53-54 (bifolium). 306 x 202mm. Pot watermark, now imperfect by removal of lower half of second leaf. Texts copied in a single Secretary hand. Contemporary docket on f. 2v 'Cambridge confutinge Oxford Ballad. / There was an old ladd &c ' I C U R'.

Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset: Poetry ENGLISH: Satirical ballad `There was an old lad' on Robert Carr: circa 1613-1615: Copy.

University of Oxford: Poetry ENGLISH: Richard Corbett, Bishop of Norwich: University of Cambridge: William Lakes, of Clare Hall, Cambridge: Satirical `Cambridge Madrigall' in answer to R. Corbett's `It is not a full fortnight since' attributed to William Lakes: circa 1613-1615: Copy.