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Source: London Labour and the London Poor Henry Mayhew (1861) Of the Street Poets and AuthorsThe same street authors - now six in number - compose indiscriminately any description of ballad. When the printer has determined upon a Sorrowful Lamentation, he sends to a poet for a copy of verses, which is promptly supplied. The payment I have already mentioned - 1s.; but sometimes, if the printer (and publisher) like the verses, he throws a penny or two over; and sometimes also, in case of a great sale, there is the same over-sum. Fewer ballads, I was assured, than was the case ten or twelve years ago, are now written expressly for street sale or street minstrelsy. They come to the printer, for nothing, from the concert-room. He has only to buy a `Ross' or a `Sharp' [song-book] for 1d., and there's a lot of 'em; so, in course, a publisher ain't a-going to give a bob, if he can be served for a farthing, just by buying a song-book.The ballads which have lately been written, and published expressly for the street sale, and have proved the most successful, are parodies or imitations of `The Gay Cavalier.' One street ballad, commencing in the following words, was, I am told, greatly admired, both in the streets and the public-houses:
A large number of ballads which I procured, and all sold and sung in the street, though not written expressly for the purpose, presented a curious study enough. They were of every class: `Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doun,' `The Merry Fiddler,' (an indecent song) - `There's a good Time coming, Boys,' `Nix, my Dolly,' `The Girls of - shire,' (which of course is available for any county) - `Widow Mahoney,' `Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave,' `Clementina Clemmins,' `Lucy Long,' `Erin Go Bragh,' `Christmas in 1850,' `The Death of Nelson,' `The Life and Adventures of Jemmy Sweet,' `The Young May Moon,' `Hail to the Tyrol,' `He was sich a Lushy Cove,' &c. &c. Some of these ballads have an illustration always at the top of the column. `The Heart that can Feel for Another' is illustrated by a gaunt and savage-looking lion. `The Amorous Waterman of St. John's Wood,' presents a very short, obese, and bow-legged grocer, in top-boots, standing at his door, while a lady in a huge bonnet is taking a sight at him, to the evident satisfaction of a baked 'tater man. `Rosin the Beau' is heralded by the rising sun. "`he Poachers' has a cut of the Royal Exchange above the title. `The Miller's Ditty' is illustrated by a perfect dandy, of the slimmest and straightest fashion; and `When I was first Breeched,' by an engraving of a Highlander. |