THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. WILLIAM HENRY BLACK, Esq. BOLTON CORNEY, Esq., M.R.S.L. T. CROFTON CROKER, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. J. H. DIXON, Esq. FREDERICK WILLIAM FAIRHOLT, Esq. F.S.A. J. M. GUTCH, Esq., F.S.A. JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. W. JERDAN, Esq. M.R.S.L. J. S. MOORE, Esq. E. RALEIGH MORAN, Esq. T. J. PETTIGREW, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. JAMES PRIOR, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. WILLIAM SANDYS, Esq. F.S.A. THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F S.A., Treasurer & Secretary. were elected Council of the Society, and A. Ashpitel, Esq., J. Blachford, Esq., and L. Pocock, Esq., were elected Auditors for the ensuing year. The thanks of the Society were then voted to the editors of the Publications of the past year; to Thomas Wright, Esq., for his services as Treasurer and Secretary; to the Royal Society of Literature for the use of their Rooms for the Anniversary Meeting; to the President for the warm interest which he has always taken in the proceedings of the Society; and to the Chairman for his services on the present occasion. EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT. THE Council comes before the Society at large, for the eighth time, to lay before it the Report of the year's proceedings. It can again with confidence say that the Society is in a flourishing condition; yet, in pointing out to attention how much has been done by the economical application of the comparatively small funds at its disposal, it feels that it is its duty again to urge upon the members individually the expediency in every point of view of making the Society's objects more generally known, in the hope that, by filling up its originally prescribed number of members its usefulness may be proportionally increased. The value set upon the Society's publications is apparent, not only from the increasing prices given for them, when they find their way into the market, but by the number of back sets which have been taken by new members, although the first year is already so much exhausted that no more than five of its publications can now be supplied. During the past year the Council has been enabled to publish the Second Volume of the new edition of the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer; it is confidently expected that the third volume, which will complete the work, and contain a new and copious glossary, will be ready for delivery on the 1st of September. A new and carefully-revised text of the Poems of the Earl of Surrey is also preparing under the editorial care of Mr. Bolton Corney, and is designed to form one of the next year's publications. The Council has also taken into consideration a suggestion made at the Anniversary Meeting, on the propriety of giving the members an index of the separate pieces contained in the various publications of the Society since its commencement, for the convenience of general reference; and an index of this description is now in preparation, the compilation of which has been kindly undertaken by one of the members. The publications for the last year have been 1. The Cytezen and Uplondyshman. Edited by F. W. Fairholt, Esq. 2. The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Vol. II. Edited by Thomas Wright, Esq. 3. Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century. Edited from a MS. by T. Wright, Esq. 4. An Interlude of the Four Elements. Edited by J. O. Halliwell, Esq. 5. Interlude of the Disobedient Child. Edited by the Same. 6. The Autobiography of Mary Countess of Warwick. Edited by T. C. Croker, Esq. The following works are preparing for publication, or have been suggested to the Council for that purpose. 1. Festive Songs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, to be edited by W. Sandys, Esq., F.S.A. 2. A Collection of Satirical Songs and Ballads on Costume, com mencing with the Reign of Henry III, with Illustrative Notes, and Introduction. By F. W. Fairholt, Esq., F.S.A. 3. An inedited Play of Massinger, entitled "Believe as you list," to be edited by T. Crofton Croker, Esq., F.S.A., from the original manuscript in his own possession. 4. A Collection of Military Ballads, as a Companion to the Collection of Naval Ballads already published by the Society. 5. A Selection from the Roxburghe Ballads now in the British Museum. 6. A Curious Satirical Tract of the Seventeenth Century, entitled "The Man in the Moon," to be edited by J. O. Halliwell, Esq. 7. A new edition of Barclay's Eclogues. 8. The early Poem of "John the Gardener,” a metrical treatise on Domestic Gardening, in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 9. A Collection of Old Ballads, relating to the Processions of the Irish Trades. 10. A new edition of Lord Cork's "True Remembrances," with Notes by T. Crofton Croker, Esq. 11. Westward for Smelts, written by Kinde Kit of Kingstone, 1620. An early and curious collection of tales, several of which have been employed by our early dramatists in the construction of their plots. 12. The Poems of Hoccleve. To be edited by W. H. Black, Esq. 13. A Collection of Ballads relating to the Persecutions of the Roman Catholics in the North of England, during the Reign of Elizabeth. 14. An Edition of Heywood's "Dialogue contayning in effect the number of al the Proverbes in the English Tongue compact in a matter concerning two marriages." 15. A Collection of Ballads, in old French and English, relating to Cocaygne. To be edited by T. Wright, Esq. 16. A Collection of Jacobite Ballads and Fragments, many of them hitherto unpublished. To be edited by William Jerdan, Esq., M.R.S.L. 17. A Collection of Charms, illustrative of English superstitions in former days. From early manuscripts. 18. "Rede me and be nott wrothe." A Satire on Cardinal Wolsey, by William Roy. 19. The History of the Office of Poet Laureate in England, with Notices of the existence of similar offices in Italy and Germany. By James J. Scott, Esq. 20. Historical Ballads, in the Scottish Dialect, relating to events in the years 1570, 1571, and 1572; from the copies preserved in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, London. To be edited by David Laing, Esq., F.S.A.Sc. 21. A Selection from the Poems of Taylor, the Water-Poet. 22. A Continuation of the Collection of Ballads, by J. Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A. The Council may be allowed to repeat the invitation made in its former Reports, to Members of the Society and others, to suggest new works for consideration. The Society is obliged to all gentlemen who may contribute rare tracts or ballads from private collections; as well as to the different Editors, by whose zeal and gratuitous labours they may be ushered into the world. T. CROFTON CROKER, Chairman. |