lty is without compare or compeer; as to his
great and eternal commendations, he manifested in his challenge at the
Swan, on Bank-side." The Swan was one of the theatres so popular in the
era of Elizabeth and James I., situated on the Bankside, Southwark.]

[Footnote 57: Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 56.]

[Footnote 58: In the poem on the entrenchment of New Ross, in Ireland,
in 1265 (Harl. MS., No. 913), is a similar account of the minstrelsy
which accompanied the workers. The original is in Norman French; the
translation we use is that by the late Miss Landon (L.E.L.):--

Monday they began their labours,
Gay with banners, flutes, and labours;
Soon as the noon hour was come,
These good people hastened home,
With their banners proudly borne.
Then the youth advanced in turn,
And the town, they make it ring,
With their merry carolling;
Singing loud, and full of mirth,
A way they go to shovel earth."

]

[Footnote 59: Deip. lib. xiv. cap. iii.]

[Footnote 60: The Lords of the Admiralty a few years ago issued a
revised edition of these songs, for the use of our navy. They embody so
completely the idea "of a true British sailor," that they have developed
and upheld the character.]

[Footnote 61: In Durfey's whimsical collection of songs, "Wit and
Mirth," 1682, are several trade songs. One on the blacksmiths begins:--

Of all the trades that ever I see,
There's none to a blacksmith compared may be,
With so many several tools works he;
Which nobody can deny!"

The London companies also chanted forth their own praises. Thus the
Mercers' Company, in 1701, sang in their Lord Mayor's Show, alluding to
their arms, "a demi-Virgin, crowned":--

"Advance the Virgin--lead the van--
Of all that are in London free,
The mercer is the foremost man
That founded a society;
Of all the trades that London grace,
We are the first in time and place."

]

[Footnote 62: Dr. Burney subsequently observed, that "this rogue
Autolycus is the true ancient Minstrel in the old Fabliaux;" on which
Steevens remarks, "Many will push the comparison a little further, and
concur with me in thinking that our _modern minstrels_ of the opera,
like their predecessor Autolycus, are _pickpockets_ as well as singers
of _nonsensical_ ballads."--_Steevens's Shakspeare_, vol. vii. p. 107,
his own edition, 1793.]

[Footnote 63: Mr. Roscoe has