The loving ballad of Lord Bateman
By: Illustrated by George Cruikshank.
Contributors: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.; Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.; Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863.; Harrild, Thomas (printer)
Publisher: David Bogue; Thomas Harrild, Printer, Silver Street, Falcon Square.)
Published: 1851
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 40
Other titles: Lord Bateman; Loving ballad of Lord Bateman :
Notes: Publication imprint includes bogus statement: "and Mustapha Syried, Constantinople.".

Text printed on recto of sheets only.

"In some collection of Old English Ballads there is an ancient ditty which I am told bears some remote and distant resemblance to the following Epic Poem.  I beg to quote the emphatic language of my estimable friend (if he will allow me to call him so), the Black Bear in Piccadilly, and to assure all to whom these presents may come, that "I am the original".  This affecting legend is given in the following pages precisely as I have frequently heard it sung on Saturday nights, outside a house of general refreshment (familiarly termed a wine vaults) at Battle-bridge.  The singer is a young gentleman who can scarcely have numbered nineteen summers ... I have taken down the words from his own mouth at different periods, and have been careful to preserve his pronunciation, together with the air to which he does so much justice."--Warning to the Public concerning The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman (Preface), signed "George Cruikshank?" (p. [v]-vii).

"P.S. --The above is not my writing, nor the notes either, nor am I on familiar terms (but quite the contrary) with the Black Bear.  Nevertheless I admit the accuracy of the statement relative to the public singer whose name is unknown, and concur generally in the sentiments above expressed relative to him."--Preface, with wood-engraved signature: "George Cruikshank".

An adaptation of the traditional ballad, by Charles Dickens, who also furnished an original last stanza and the notes.  Frequently and erroneously ascribed to Thackeray.  Cf. Haight, Anne Lyon. "Charles Dickens tries to remain anonymous : notes on The loving ballad of Lord Bateman" in The Colophon, New Graphic Series, No.1 (1939), p. [39-66].

"Now at last the authorship of this famous jeu d'esprit has been proved beyond a doubt by the discovery of a packet of letters from Dickens to George Cruikshank ... They prove unquestionably that he was the sole writer of the Preface and the Notes and that he altered the verses of the ballad as set down by Cruikshank, and wrote the last verse.  The letters, which speak for themselves, were published in the Spring number of The Dickensian, 1938, and have been included in The letter of Charles Dickens, the Nonesuch Press, 1938."--Haight, A.L. in The Colophon, p. [47].

Etched plates are with variations of imprint: "Designed Etched & Published by George Cruikshank 1839".  All are with captions.

Plates are with the same imagery as those used in an edition of this title published in 1884 by George Bell and Sons.  See McLean D 0700.

Includes "Notes.": p. [31]-40.

MASS copy: Bound in later half green morocco and green sand-grain cloth; a.e.g.  Spine and edges of morocco blocked in gold.  Upper cover pasted with 9 x 8 cm. cut from original olive green vertical rib-grain cloth blocked in gold with title and illustration similar to those within the text, including signature: "George Cruikshank".  Illustration is the same as that used on the upper cover of McLean D 0700.  With marbled endpapers.