A poem by William Basse is inserted in the _Annalia Dubrensia_, 1636, in praise of Robert Dover and his revival of the Cotswold Games; but it is not clear to which of these poets we may ascribe it. Malone attributes two rare volumes to one or other of these poets. The first, a translation or paraphrase of Juvenal's tenth satire, entitled _That which seems Best is Worst_, 12mo., 1617; the second, "A Miscellany of Merriment," entitled _A Helpe to Discourse_, 2nd edit. 8vo., 1620: but the former is more probably the work of William Barkstead. I may mention that a copy of Basse's _Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence_, 1602, is among Malone's books in the Bodleian.
Izaac Walton speaks of William Basse, "one that hath made the choice songs of the _Hunter in His Career_, and of _Tom of Bedlam_, and many others of note." The ballad mentioned by MR. COLLIER, "Maister Basse his Career, or the Hunting of the Hare," is undoubtably the one alluded to by Walton. I may add, that it is printed in _Wit and Drollery_, edit. 1682. p. 64.; and also in _Old Ballads_, 1725, vol. iii. p. 196. The tune is contained in the _Shene MS._, a curious collection of old tunes in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh; and a ballad entitled _Hubert's Ghost_, to the tune of _Basse's Carrier_, is preserved among the Bagford Collection of Old Ballads in the British Museum. With regard to the second ballad mentioned by Walton, our knowledge is not so perfect. Sir John Hawkins in a note (_Complete Angler_, 5th edit. p. 73.) says:--
"This song, beginning-- 'Forth from my dark and dismal cell,'
with the music to it, set by Hen. Lawes, is printed in a book, entitled _Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues, to sing to the Theorbo Lute, and Bass Viol_, folio. 1675, and in Playfield's _Antidote against Melancholy_, 8vo. 1669, and also in Dr. Percy's _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 350; but in the latter with a mistake in the last line of the third stanza, of the word _Pentarchy_ for _Pentateuch_."
A copy of the _Choice Ayres_, 1675, is now before me, but Henry Lawes's name does not appear to the song in question. Sir John has evidently made a mistake; the air of _Mad Tom_ was composed by John Cooper, alias _Giovanni Coperario_, for one of the Masques perfomed by the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn. (See _The English Dancing Master_, 1651, in the British Museum, and Additional MS. 10,440, in the same repository.) With regard to the ballad itself, there is an early copy (of the latter part of the sixteenth century) { 266} preserved in the Harleian MSS., No. 7332, fol. 41. It purports to have been