gested by incidents the most interesting
and touching. Let us first examine it verse by verse. The author has no
tedious prelude, not even an invocation; but, like Homer, immediately
enters into the middle of his subject, and in a few words gives us the
name, character, and amour of his hero. Observe the gayety of the
opening:--

"Billy Taylor was a brisk young feller,
Full on mirth and full on glee."

How admirably, how judiciously is this jocund beginning contrasted with
the melancholy sequel! how affecting to the reader's feelings when he
reflects how soon Billy's joy will be damped! Unhappy Taylor!--Let us
proceed to the next lines:--

"And his mind he did diskiver
To a lady fair and free."

Taylor was a bold youth: he feared not to tell his mind to the lady; he
did not stand shilly-shally, like a whimpering lover. But we are here
presented with a new character, a lady fair and free. Some commentators
have thought that she was a lady of easy virtue, from the epithet free;
and indeed the violence of her love and jealousy seems to favour the
suspicion: but let us not be too severe; free may signify no more than
that she was of a cheerful disposition, and thus of the same temper with
her lover: _concordes animae!_ Thus far all is pleasant and delightful:
but the scene is now changed--and sorrow succeeds to joy.

"Four and twenty brisk young fellers,
Drest they vas in rich array,
They kim and they seized Billy Taylor,
Press'd he vas and sent to sea."

Taylor, the brisk, the mirthful Taylor is pressed and sent to sea. I
cannot help observing here the art of the poet in letting us into the
condition of Taylor: we may guess from his being pressed that he was not
free of the city, and was most likely a journeyman cobler, coblers being
famous for their glee. I will not positively say he was a cobler:
Scaliger thinks he was a lamp-lighter; "_adhuc sub judice lis est_." But
to proceed--Taylor is on board ship: what does his true-love?

"His true-love she followed arter,
Under the name of Richard Car;
And her hands were all bedaubed
With the nasty pitch and tar."

Many ladies would have comforted themselves with other lovers; not so
Billy's mistress, she follows him; she enters the ship under the name of
Richard Car. She condescends to daub her lilly-white hands with the
pitch and tar. What excessive love, and how ill rewarded! I have two
things to remark