Some more of me notes:

"After The Ball" ... Charles K Harris's (1892) tearjerker was much parodied and it's the popular parody I was thinking about here. Noel Coward used the title for a musical adaptation of "Lady Windermere's Fan" in 1954 and must surely have known about both the original and the parodies.

"Babes In The Wood" ... a traditional song which is much older than the pantomimes based on it. The ballad (with melody?) appears to have been published in Norwich by Thomas Millington in 1595, though Bishop Percy (Reliques) attributed it to Robert Tarleton (1601).

"Henry Martin" (Andrew Barton) ... If lasting ballads of great battles are few, those of more or less mythologized flurries with pirate ships abound, and some seem well nigh indestructible. During the present century, there is hardly a traditional singer of note, from Henry Burstow to Sam Larner, who had not his good version of Henry Martin, a piece that has remained a favourite through many vicissitudes since it was first printed (in 82 verses!) at the outset of the seventeenth century, and sold from cheap stationers' halls in St Paul's churchyard and elsewhere. [...] In the course of time, passing by word of mouth from one country singer to another, the song grew shorter, the long-winded narrative pared down till only a swift account of the piracy remained. Perhaps through mishearing, the captain's name was altered first to Andy Bardan and then to Henry Martin. The piece remains one of the most-sung ballads of our time. (Lloyd, England 259)

Anyone up for "W - Lord, what an ally. The panacea is in prayer." ... DMcG got a good one, but it's not mine!

:-)