Excerpt from The Bentley Ballads: Of the Choice Ballads, Songs, &C., Contributed to "Bentley's Miscellany" IN the reign of James I there was a right merry Dean of Gloucester, who was addicted to the pleasant custom of entertaining many of his reverend brethren at dinner. On one of these occasions, the guests fell into talk as to how the Fathers might best be reconciled on certain points, whereon they differed. Ah said the Dean, if you will follow me, gentlemen, I will show you how the Fathers who differ may be made to agree. The company, therefore, followed their host to his library, where they saw a droll arrangement of the works of the Fathers in question; all the reverend authors being placed in a circle, with a quart of sack by the side of every one of them! In some such wise as the sack to the Fathers is the book of Bentley Ballads offered to the public. If the sack could make the Fathers agree, it is hoped that this volume may help to make their posterity laugh; and that there may be found in it something to gratify the taste, even of the more serious. The Ballads have been selected from a store that is far from being exhausted, and if this. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.