_"A Frog he would a-wooing go"_ (Vol. ii., p. 45.)--Your correspondent
T. S. D. is certainly right in his notion that the ballad of "A frog he
would a-wooing go" is very old, however fanciful may be his conjecture
about its personal or political application to Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn.
That it could not refer to "the Cavaliers and the Roundheads," another of
T. S. D.'s notions, is clear from the fact, that it was entered at
Stationers' Hall in November, 1581; as appears by the quotation made by Mr.
Payne Collier, in his second volume of _Extracts_, printed for the
Shakspeare Society last year. It runs thus:--
"Edward White. Lycensed unto him, &c., theis iiij. ballads followinge,
that is to saie, A moste strange weddinge of the frogge and the mowse,"
&c.
Upon this entry Mr. Collier makes this note:
"The ballad can hardly be any other than the still well-known comic
song 'A Frog he would a-wooing go.'"
It may have been even older than 1581, when Edward White entered it; for it
is possible that it was then only a reprint of an earlier production. I,
like Mr. Collier, have heard it sung "in our theatres and streets," and,
like T. S. D., always fancied that it was ancient.