Broadside or 'street' ballads not only give the flavour of english life and history more vividly than much historical evidence of more conventional kinds, but also their sheer poetic quality often makes them substantial poems, light or serious, in their own right. They are reprinted from contemporary or near contemporary broadsides in the Madden Collection at the University Library, Cambridge, and the head and tail blocks, so distinctive a feature of the original texts, are reproduced for this edition. The introduction is designed to enable the reader to read the texts in perspective and with pleasure, and the book includes a select bibiography and an index of ballad titles.