g Glass for
Citizens of London, being a remarkable story how Sir Richard Whittington
(a poor boy bred up in Lancashire) came to be three times Lord Mayor of
London in three several kings' reigns, and how his rise was by a cat,
which he sent by a venture beyond sea. Together with his bountiful gifts
and liberality given to this honourable City, and the vast sums of money
he lent the King to maintain the wars in France; and how at a great
Feast, to which he invited the King, the Queen, and the Nobility, he
generously burnt the writings and freely forgave his Majesty the whole
Debt. Tune of 'Dainty, come thou to me.' London: Printed for R. Burton,
at the Horse Shoe in West Smithfield."

The bulk of the ballad is the same as Richard Johnson's, but the
following first stanza is added, the original first stanza becoming the
second:--

"Brave London Prentices,
Come listen to my song,
Tis for your glory all
And to you both belong.
And you poor country lads,
Though born of low degree,
See by God's providence
What you in time may be."

The second half of the original seventh stanza, and the eighth, ninth,
and tenth stanzas, are left out.

Immediately before the last stanza the following one is introduced:--

"Let all kynde Citizens
Who do this story read,
By his example learn
Always the poor to feed.
What is lent to the poor
The Lord will sure repay,
And blessings keep in store
Until the latter day."

The other alterations are not many, and chiefly consist in
transpositions by which the rhymes are varied. This may be seen by
comparing with the original the Roxburghe version of the last stanza
which is as follows:--

"Lancashire, thou hast bred
This flower of charity;
Though he be dead and gone,
Yet lives his memory.
Those bells that call'd him so,
Turn again, Whittington,
Would they call may moe
Such men to fair London."

At the end of one of the chap-books there is a version of the ballad in
which Lancashire is replaced by Somersetshire.

In the same volume of the _Roxburghe Ballads_ (p. 470) is a short
version [1710?] containing a few only of the verses taken from the
ballad. It is illustrated with some woodcuts from T. H.'s earlier
_History_.

"An old Ballad of Whittington and his Cat, who from a poor boy came to
be thrice Lord Mayor of London. Printed and sold in Aldermary Church
Yard, London."

There is a copy of this in the C