Martin Parker

Martin Parker (died about 1656) was one of the most prolific London ballad-writers of the reign of Charles I, supplying the printers of Cheapside and the Old Bailey with moral, comic, news and love ballads, many signed with his initials M. P. Little is known of his life, and the dates given here are the catalogue's own uncertain ones.

The ballads in this archive are single-sheet broadsides, each from the Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP) transcription of its printed sheet. Attribution follows the TCP catalogue, which names Parker, or the printed signature M. P.; initials alone cannot prove authorship, and the note on each ballad records its TCP number and printing date. Long s is normalised and the original spelling otherwise kept.