rselves, may meet with the approbation of our friends and subscribers, we
bid them Farewell! and wish them,--what we trust they wish to NOTES AND
QUERIES--a Happy New Year, and many of them!

* * * * *

NOTES.

OLD BALLAD UPON THE "WINTER'S TALE."

Some of your correspondents may be able to give me information respecting
an old ballad that has very recently fallen in my way, on a story similar
to that of Shakspeare's _Winter's Tale_, and in some particulars still more
like Greene's novel of _Pandosto_, upon which the _Winter's Tale_ was
founded. You are aware that the earliest known edition of Greene's novel is
dated 1588, although there is room to suspect that it had been originally
{2} printed before that year: the first we hear of the _Winter's Tale_ is
in 1611, when it was acted at court, and it was not printed until it
appeared in the folio of 1623.

The ballad to which I refer has for title _The Royal Courtly Garland, or
Joy after Sorrow_: it is in ordinary type, and was "Printed and sold in
Aldermary Churchyard, London." It has no date, and in appearance does not
look older than from perhaps, 1690 to 1720; it may even be more recent, as
at that period it is not easy to form a correct opinion either from
typography or orthography: black-letter has a distinguishing character at
various periods, so as to enable a judgment to be formed within, perhaps,
ten years, as regards an undated production: but such is not the case with
Roman type, or white-letter. What I suspect, however, is that this ballad
is considerably older, and that my copy is only a comparatively modern
reprint with some alterations; it requires no proof, at this time of day,
to show that it was the constant habit of our old publishers of ephemeral
literature to reprint ballads without the slightest notice that they had
ever appeared before. This, in fact, is the point on which I want
information, as to _The Royal Courtly Garland, or Joy after Sorrow_. Can
any of your correspondents refer me to an older copy, or do they know of
the existence of one which belongs to a later period? I cannot be ignorant
of DR. RIMBAULT'S learning on such matters, and I make my appeal especially
to him.

It is very possible that it may bear a different title in other copies, and
for the sake of identification I will furnish a few extracts from the
various "parts" (no fewer than six) into which the ballad is divided;
observing that th