Naval songs and ballads

"Naval songs and ballads" by C. H. Firth is a collection of historical ballads written in the early 20th century. It gathers English popular verse about the navy from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, using songs to illuminate battles, piracy, seamanship, and public feeling about maritime power. The opening of this volume sets out its purpose and scope, explains the historical value of ballads, and classifies them into three main kinds: pieces by professional broadside writers, songs by sailors and officers, and politically minded works by men of letters. It then sketches a brisk literary history, from medieval and Elizabethan celebrations through Armada-era broadsides, Barbary corsair tales, and Restoration Dutch War songs, to William III’s La Hogue ballads and the rise of pirate lore (Avery, Kidd). Along the way it touches on censorship under the Commonwealth, impressment and seamen’s grievances, and the texture of shipboard culture—music, dancing, and forecastle songs—culminating in notes on stage and patriotic pieces sailors adopted, such as D’Urfey’s sea song and Purcell’s “Britons, strike home.”