Content Description | Individual poems in this volume are described under references Pw V 41/1-71. |
Volume bears the title 'MSS Ballads/ 1640 to 1700' gold stamped on 2nd and 3rd panel of spine.
The manuscript contains a miscellaneous collection of 71 ballads, songs and poems dating from c.1640-c.1700 selected by F.W. Cosens from 'a much large collection of such pieces obtained from Lincolnshire', according to a note in Cosens's hand on the flyleaf.
The final poem 'Pythagoras his Tranmigration', Pw V 41/71, preserved on a loose leaf, was pasted into volume on 30 July 1996; it may not be part of Cosens's collection purchased by 6th Duke of Portland in 1934.
Several of the poems have pencilled numbers which may refer to a previous ordering of the contents. |