A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    642/700 (page 612)
    Before I give you one penny, sweet-heart, Praye tell me where you were borne. At Islington, kind sir, sayd shee, Where I have had many a score. I prythee, sweet-heart, then tell to mee, 0 tell me whether you knowe The baylifPs daughter of Islington, She is dead, sir, long agoe. If she be dead then take my horse, My saddle and bridle also; For I will into some far countrey, Where noe man shall me knowe. 0 staye, o staye, thou goodlye youthe, She standeth by thy side; She is here alive, she is not dead, And readye to be thy bride. 0 farewell griefe, and welcome joye, Ten thousand times therefore; For nowe I have found mine Owne true love, Whom I thought I should never see more. The minstrels nourished until the middle of the six- teenth century and were then superseded by inferior poets who wrote ballads for publication. By the end of the century the minstrels as such ceased to exist. Surviving old minstrels were reduced to singing in the streets and outside beer- houses. The puritanical writers of the period were con- stantly agitating against their ' filthy, coarse and smutty' songs. Yet the common people still continued to listen with pleasure to their songs. Putenham, a courtier at the court of Queen Elizabeth, records that these ' tavern minstrels ' mostly sang historical [612]