The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108708 Message #2267138
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
20-Feb-08 - 02:38 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Blue Bells of Ireland (bawdy)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Blue Bells of Ireland (bawdy)
To which should be added:
Printed for S. Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Gilt-Spur Street.
The publisher's details are important, as they give an idea of the date among other things. The Bodleian puts this one at c.1720, which appears to be the year that Sarah Bates took over the Giltspur Street establishment from her (presumably, deceased) husband Charles Bates, who had been one of the later partners in a long and complicated series of overlapping broadside publishing partnerships going back to Coles, Wright, Vere and Gilbertson in 1655.
The edition transcribed above is a later white-letter reprint of a blackletter sheet issued by Brooksby, Deacon, Blare and Back some time between 1683 and 1696, and a copy of that too can be seen at the Bodleian site: