The English Broadside Ballad Archive (EBBA) is a digital library of 17th-century English Broadside Ballads, a project of the English Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The project archives ballads in multiple accessible digital formats.
The English Broadside Ballad Archive was created in 2003 by Patricia Fumerton, Professor of English at UCSB to digitize broadside ballads of the heyday of the 17th century. Many of these ballads are currently held in difficult to access libraries in both North America and the United Kingdom, often in fragile condition, and EBBA's aim is to make them accessible to users in a variety of digital formats. Since then, EBBA has received six Collections and Resources grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant, and Faculty Research Grants and Instructional Improvement Grants from the University of California, Santa Barbara. As of August 2015, the project has archived over 7000 of the estimated 11,000 extant broadside ballads.
As of August 2015, EBBA has archived 7,124 broadside ballads, from 20 different collections held at six different libraries worldwide. The collections range from the very well-known and recognized by name - such as those housed at the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge - to the relatively unknown. The project has currently archived ballads from the following libraries, with partnerships in place to begin archiving ballads from several other libraries in the next two years.
In addition to cataloging all of its holdings exhaustively, EBBA archives ballads in up to five different formats, all designed to make the ballads more accessible to modern scholars and members of the public.
All ballads are archived on the website as a high quality, 600 dpi image of the ballad sheet, trimmed with a 2mm margin.
Those ballads that were pasted into albums or archived in any format other than loose-leaf are also archived on the website in another high quality photograph of the ballad sheet on its surrounding album page.
All ballads, often originally rendered in difficult to read black letter, or Gothic font, and other early modern typefaces, are transcribed into Times New Roman using a diplomatic double-keyed transcription process, and those transcriptions are included in the archive.
All ballads are archived in Facsimile Transcriptions, in which the original blocks of text from the Ballad Facsimile have been replaced with blocks of text from the modern transcription, resulting in an image that preserves the visual experience of the original ballad, including woodcut impression illustrations, yet is easily readable by a modern audience.
Many broadside ballads include a tune imprint, indicating to which well-known tune they were meant to be sung. For those ballads for which EBBA has been able to identify the tune, recordings of the sung ballad are available on the archive.
Robin Hood's Chase is Child ballad 146 and a sequel to Child ballad 145, "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine". This song has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child Ballads, a comprehensive collection of traditional English and Scottish ballads.
"Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" is Child ballad 139, an original story that is part of the Robin Hood canon. This song has survived as, among other forms, a late 17th-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
Robin Hood and the Tanner is Child ballad 126. It is a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad and one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero Robin Hood that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads but has now been subsumed and surpassed by the Roud Folk Song Index.
Robin Hood and the Butcher is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads. It may have been derived from the similar Robin Hood and the Potter.
Robin Hood’s Golden Prize is Child ballad 147. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
Robin Hood's Delight is Child ballad 136. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
Robin Hood and the Bishop is number 143 in Francis James Child's collection of Child ballads, and describes an adventure of Robin Hood. This song has also survived as a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
Robin Hood and the Shepherd is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one (#135) out of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
"Robin Hood and the Beggar" is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is a pair out of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads. These two ballads share the same basic plot device in which the English folk hero Robin Hood meets a beggar.
"King John and the Bishop" is an English folk-song dating back at least to the 16th century. It is catalogued in Child Ballads as number 45 and Roud Folk Song Index 302.
The Clarret Drinker's Song: Or, The Good Fellows Design is an English broadside ballad published by John Oldham in 1680 and is set to the standard tune of "Let Caesar Live Long." An original copy of the ballad is located in the National Library of Scotland, however online facsimiles and recordings are available for public consumption.
Frauncis new Jigge, betweene Frauncis a Gentleman, and Richard a Farmer is an English broadside ballad published by George Attowell in the early 17th-century, and is set to the tune of "Go from my Window Walshingham." The original copy of the ballad has, over the years, sustained surface damage and uneven inking, but is nevertheless available for view at the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Online facsimiles of the ballad, as well as audio recordings sung to the original tune, are available online.
"A free admonition without any fees / To warne the Papistes to beware of three trees" is an English broadside ballad published by William Birch in 1571 and is not currently set to any tune An original copy of the ballad is located in the Huntington Library, however online facsimiles are available for public consumption.
"Royal Courage" or "King William's Happy Success in Ireland" is an English broadside ballad published by Thomas Betterton between 1682 and 1692, and is set to the tune of "Let the Soldiers Rejoice". The original copy of the ballad is available for view at the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Online facsimiles of the ballad, as well as audio recordings sung to the original tune, have been made available online for public consumption.
"The Lamentable and Tragical History of Titus Andronicus,"also called"Titus Andronicus' Complaint," is a ballad from the 17th century about the fictional Roman general, Titus, and his revenge cycle with the Queen of the Goths. Events in the ballad take place near the end of the Roman Empire, and the narrative of the ballad parallels the plot of William Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Scholarly debate exists as to which text may have existed first, the ballad or the play. The ballad itself was first entered on the Stationers' Register in 1594, the same year the play was entered. Surviving copies of the ballad can be found in the British Library, in the Huntington Library, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Online copies of the facsimiles are also available for public consumption at sites such as the English Broadside Ballad Archive.
Cromwell's Panegyrick is a printed English broadside ballad composed in the year 1647. Copies of it are in collections including the British Library, Society of Antiquaries, The National Archives, Huntington Library, and the National Library of Scotland. Online facsimiles of the ballad are available online for public consumption. Though the ballad's title claims to be a panegyric, it quickly becomes a mock-panegyric, taking the theme of praise and turning it on its head. In this way, the ballad becomes more of a satire as opposed to a true panegyric. For instance, though it describes in part Cromwell's role in the Second English Civil War, which broke out officially in 1648, it also mentions how large and bulbous Cromwell's nose was: "Well may his Nose, that is dominicall, / Take pepper int." The ballad undercuts all of Cromwell's accomplishments in the military, and goes so far as to claim – as many did of Cromwell in the 1640s and 50s – that he was an individual motivated purely by a desire for power and kingship, thus painting him in a Machiavellian light.
Robin Hood and Little John is Child ballad 125. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads.
"The Wandering Prince of Troy" is an early modern ballad that provides an account of the interactions between Aeneas, the mythical founder of Rome, and Dido, queen of Carthage. Although the earliest surviving copy of this ballad dates to c. 1630, the records of the Stationers' Register show that it was first licensed to Thomas Colwell for printing nearly seventy years prior in c. 1564 or 1565. The narrative of the ballad loosely parallels the events in books 1–4 of Virgil's Aeneid and the seventh epistle of Ovid's Heroides. Like many ballads from the period, "The Wandering Prince of Troy" was frequently reprinted in broadside format. Various copies of such broadside facsimiles exist today in multiple libraries: the National Library of Scotland, the British Library, the library at the University of Glasgow, and the library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Online facsimiles of the ballad broadsides are also available.
England's Triumph, Or, The Kingdom's Joy for the proclaiming of King William and His Royal Consort, Queen Mary, in the Throne of England, on the 13th. of this instant February. 1688, or simply England's Triumph, is an English broadside ballad composed in 1689. As the title suggests, the ballad takes as its primary focus the coronation of William III of England and his consort Mary II of England, which took place in February 1689. William III and Mary II's coregency marked the end of the Glorious Revolution and the reign of James II of England. The coregency also brought about a shift in the religious paradigm of 17th-century England, which was Roman Catholic when James II sat upon the throne. Indeed, the ballad comments on the "vile pop'ry" that ruled the throne prior to the rule of William III, which saw the restoration of Protestant liberty. Extant copies of the ballad are available at Magdelene College in the Pepys Library. Alternatively, online facsimiles of the ballad are available online for public consumption.
The Lamentation of Cloris or "The Lamentation of Cloris, For the Unkindness of her Shepherd" is a broadside ballad, which dates from, by estimation of the English Short Title Catalogue,1678-1680. The ballad begins, "MY Shepherd's unkind,/ alas, what shall I do?." Copies of the ballad can be found at the National Library of Scotland, the British Library, the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, and the University of Glasgow Library. Alternatively, online facsimiles of the ballad are available for public consumption. The nucleus of the ballad centers around a cuckolding and the justification for marital infidelity.
