[from English Song-Books by Day and Murrie:
The origins of Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy,
the most famous song book of its day, may be traced back to
a single volume of 'witty ballads, jovial songs, and merry
catches' by an earlier generation of lyricists, published
without music in 1661 under the title An Antidote against
Melancholy: made up in Pills. For the third edition, still
without music but livened up by more recent songs, the title
was changed to Wit and Mirth: An Antidote against Melancholy
(1682), and in 1699, still in one volume, it was published
by Henry Playford with music. Over the course of the next
two decades it was expanded and republished again and again,
eventually to become this six-volume 'standard edition'
of contemporary popular comic and bawdy ballads, with an
increasing emphasis on the work of the stammering dramatist
and lyricist Thomas D'Urfey, whose songs were sung by all
the town. Among the composers were Dr. John Blow and Henry
Purcell.]
[from Wikipedia:
Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723) was an English dramatist and
songwriter. He wrote the plays The Fond Husband in 1676,
Madame Fickle in 1677 and The Virtuous Wife in 1680. He also
wrote the song collection Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge
Melancholy between 1719 and 1720.]
The book is not always gramatically correct, e.g.: "There was three
Travellers". Odd spellings, and odd grammatical constructions, if they
make sense, have been preserved. There is some dialect, which has also
been preserved. (e.g.: "Wo'as me poor Lass! what mun I do?")
Apostrophes of ownership are conspicuous by their absence. Spelling is
sometimes quaint...'spight' for 'spite', 'dye' for 'die', 'chuse'
for choose', 'seaze' for 'seize', 'quere' for 'queer', etc. Where a
spelling makes sense, and is merely discretional and not obviously
incorrect, it has been retained.
'Their' instead of 'there' has appeared twice (page 4 and page 201),
retained, and 'Pharoah' (page 225), retained: it _is_ a drinking song.
pp. 245-246: 'Monsieur Grabeau' (twice) on page 245 becomes Monsieur
Grabeu (four times) on page 246.
[Note (from Wikipedia):
Louis Grabu, Grabut, Grabue, or Grebus (fl. 1665-1690, died
after 1693) was a Catalan-born, French-trained composer and
violinist who was mainly active in England.
While he was probably born in Catalonia--he was later
referred to as 'Lodovicus Grabeu of Shalon in Catalunnia'
--details of his early life are lacking. Sometime in his youth
he moved to Paris, where he was most likely trained by Lully.
At the time of the Restoration he went to England, where
French music, especially opera, was much in vogue.
Charles II of England appointed him as a composer for his own
private music in 1665, and with the death of Nicholas Lanier
in 1666 he became the second person to hold the title Master
of the King's Musick. He adapted Robert Cambert's opera
Ariadne for a London performance in 1674, and wrote music for
John Dryden's Albion and Albanius in 1685.
In 1693 he left England, the only land where he had achieved
any kind of fame, and completely disappeared from historical
record.]
Consonants were not necessarily doubled where we would now expect.
Standardised modern spelling is a fairly recent (mid 19th century)
imposition, probably coinciding with the various Public Education
Acts. Some spellings may be left over from Middle English, e.g. 'sily'
from 'sely', dialect 'seely', from OE 'sÊlig' (luck, happiness); thus
'sily' (p. 58) may have meant 'lucky' or 'happy' instead of the modern
'silly'. Or 'sily' may be our modern 'silly', with an undoubled middle
consonant.
Damaged or missing punctuation has been repaired and sundry indents
have been adjusted for consistency.