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INTRODUCTION |
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2 54> 31?)- Of the ballads which described life at sea several can be traced. One on 'the perilous pains of poor mariners' was licensed on October 13, 1579, and another on March 10, 1582, concerning '' the danger of sailors and their troubles, turmoil, and pain' (Arber, ii. 164, 187). One of these is perhaps the Ballad of Sea Fardingers Describing Evil Fortune (Halliwell, p. 16; Stone, p. 6 ; Masefield, p. 145), or possibly that beginning, ' I rue to see the raging of the seas' (Halliwell, p. 79; Stone, p. 8; Collier, ii. 159). Fate has happily preserved a single damaged copy of the comedy galled Common Conditions, printed probably about 1576, containing a song sung by pirates, which is printed on p. 17 of the present volume.
Amongst the lost ballads are a certain number, relating to piracy, and recording the punishment of some Englishmen who practised that trade. On December 19, 1579, there was licensed The Fatal Farewell of Captain Gilbert Horseley, who managed to escape from the Counter, the prison in which he was confined, ' in a cloakbag,' but was recaptured and executed. Another, licensed March 16, 1580, was entitled—
' A Passport for Pirates wherein they may mark And shun their abuse by the death of Tom Clarke.'
A third, published in August 1583, was styled Clintons Lamentation and a fourth, in 1586, called The Confession of Nine Rovers (Arber, Stationers' Registers, ii. 165, 167, 197, 210).
As a substitute for these ballads, however, there has been preserved an elaborate poem purporting to be the confession of Clinton and two others, which is to be found in the Bodleian and Lambeth libraries. It is headed Clinton, Purser and Arnold, to their countrymen, wheresoever.
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