which see No. 6, above. There can be no doubt that No. 23 had been printed before 1566.
24. "The lamentation of a woman being wrongfully defamed. To the tune of Damon & Pithias."
Arber (p. viii) refers to "a ballett intituled tow lamentable songes Pithias and Damon," licensed by Lacy in 1565–66 (Trans., I, 304). Our ballad imitates the measure of the song, "Damon my friend must die, " sung by Pithias in the play of Damon and Pithias (Dodsley-Hazlitt's Old Plays, IV, 43; preserved in MS. Cotton. Vesp. A. XXV, ed. Boeddeker, loc. cit. 210). This play seems to have been the work of Richard Edwards, and in that case was performed at Christmas, 1564. But "A Newe Ballade of a Louer ... To the tune of Damon and Pithias" (Lilly's Ballads, p. 24), which was licensed in 1563 (Trans., I, 204), was also written in this measure. In John Phillip's Patient Grissell, 1566, sign. C 4, "Here Grissell Singith a songe, to the tune of Damon & Pithias. " No. 24 must have been in the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets.
25. "A proper Song, Intituled: Fain wold I haue a pretie thing to giue vnto my Ladie. To the tune of lustie Gallant."
In MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. Wright, p. 195) there is a ballad on Troilus and Cressida (registered in 1565-66, Trans., I, 300), "To the tune of Fayne woold I fynd sum pretty thynge to geeve unto my lady," a tune unquestionably named from No. 25. Thomas Colwell licensed a moralization, entitled "A fayne wolde I have a godly thynge to shewe vnto my ladye," in 1566-67 (Trans., I, 340: Arber, p. ix). No. 25 was beyond all doubt printed before the Pleasant Sonnets was registered.
26. "A proper wooing Song, intituled: Maide will ye loue me: ye or no? To the tune of the Marchaunts Daughter went ouer the fielde."
I can find nothing to assist in dating this ballad, though it may have been suggested by Wyatt's "To a ladie to answere directly with yea or nay" (Tottel's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 41).
27. "The painefull plight of a Louer oppressed with the beautifull looks of his Lady. To the tune of, I loued her ouer wel."
The fact (noted by Arber, p. ix) that in 1567-68 (Trans., I, 362) Griffith licensed a ballad called "A ffayrewell to Alas I lover you over well &c, " indicates that No. 27 was written circa 1566,
