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Ballads: Quotations from Shakespearian Quotations

I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter merrily set down; or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.— W.T. iv. 3.

Traduc'd by odious ballads.— 4. W. ii. 1

An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison.— H. IV. PT. II. ii. 2.

I love a ballad in print a' life; for then we are sure they— W. T. iv. 3

Ballad-Mongers

I had rather be a kitten, and cry,-mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers : I had rather hear a brazen can'stick turn'd, Or a dry wheel grate on an axletree; And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, Nothing so much as mincing poetry; "Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag.— H. VI. PT iii. 1.

Ballad-Singer, Itinerant

O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bag-pipe could not move you: he sings several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grow to their tunes. W. T. iv.