Pepys’ category of “Love Pleasant” holds the largest selection of ballads in the first volume of his collection, a fact which seems to speak more to the shifting boundaries of his categorizations than to anything inherent in the ballad that would make it the ideal genre for cataloging the pleasures of love. In fact, the “pleasant” nature of the ballads in “Love Pleasant” stems not necessarily from their depiction of successful, happy, or, even pleasing love, but rather from the rather amiable and good-humored tone of the majority of these ballads, even in cases when the ballads depict love—or in many cases, lust—gone awry. Although a significant number of the ballads in this category do consist of extended mediations on love—whether through almost Petrarchan terms, descriptions of exemplary beloved women, or delineations of relationships that are “successful” (in as much as they end in marriage and, frequently, the birth of a son)—many of the ballads describe fundamentally lonely or unhappy people who in many ways are, in fact, unlucky in love. These unlucky examples, however, serve as just that: comic emblems of how in the dicey world of love and lust one must choose wisely, ever aware of the seduction of vices.

While it would be unfeasible and awkward to define subcategories within “Love Pleasant” that fully encompass this largely varied group, it is possible to note within this category several thematic strains that between them manage to touch on almost all of the ballads. The first of these strains deals primarily with one lover’s fondness for another; though some simply tell the story of an opportune wooing, most of the ballads of this theme—and, indeed, “Love Pleasant” in general—center around the expectations surrounding women. Some catalogue the beloved’s many virtues, as is the case with “Jone is as good as my lady” (1. 236-237) and “Coridons commendation” (1. 330-331). Other ballads in this strain tell the story of lovers who set an example through their constancy and affection. Both “The Discourse between a Souldier and his Love” (1. 296-297) and “The true Mayde of the South” (1. 322-323) discuss women of Penelope-like devotion, who follow their loves everywhere and even disguise themselves as men to do so. Additional ballads, such as “A new Song of a Young mans opinion, of the difference betweene good and bad Women” (1. 230-231), likewise delineate what is expected of a good woman, but its refrain of “Yet if she be not such to me,/ What care I how foule she be” replaces “foule” alternately with “curst,” “bad,” “fool,” “proud,” “ill,” and “old,” demonstrating the typical tone of the ballads in this category. Regardless of the occasional negative qualities of the beloved, the subject itself tends to be presented in a most good-humored way.

The playful nature of these ballads is exhibited in another of the primary themes of “Love Pleasant,” namely in the repeated mentions of May as the ideal time for frolicking and enjoying a lover’s company, frequently in a particularly pastoral setting. Although this theme seems to apply to the most lighthearted ballads, even these ballads could have a didactic purpose. “A pleasant country maying song” (1. 337), for example, circuitously suggests that maids stand in danger of losing their virtue during these springtime romps, but this chastisement seems merely perfunctory in light of the jocular and frivolous tone of the text.

As a continuation of the “Maying song” theme, “The loving Forrester” (1. 326-327) also exemplifies “Love Pleasant’s” prevalent theme of a speaker or character expressing his or her anxiety about “lying alone.” In “The loving Forrester,” the female protagonist declares:

... I cannot stay,
         till husband hath me wedded:
This is the merry month of May,
         and now I must be bedded. (5-8)

Although this woman’s disdain for customs surrounding her virtue and chastity is certainly atypical, her longing to be with someone shares a thematic similarity with several of the ballads in this category. Throughout “Love Pleasant” both male and female characters refuse to “lye alone” in ballads that express painful anxieties regarding finding a suitable and constant mate. Although the model ballad “A Mayden’s Lamentation for a Bedfellow” (1. 246-247; 1. 286-287) happily couples the maiden with a willing mate in the second part, “The Mans comfortable answer to the Mayden that can nor will no longer ly alone,” others of this theme do not conclude so satisfyingly. However, it seems that those ballads with more disappointing endings still qualify as “Love Pleasant” due to their humorous, albeit occasionally mean-spirited, depictions.

The kind of coarse subject matter at work in these ballads carries over into the final thematic strain at work in “Love Pleasant,” that which deals with pressing anxiety over being careful with chastity. These ballads together add up to a veritable tight-rope walk for a young woman: if she scorns a wooer too quickly, he may never return and she will lament her lonely state, as in “Sweetheart, I love thee” (1. 262-263). If she fails to turn her seducer away, she may end up impregnated and without any money as in “A pleasant song of a maiden fair” (1. 244-245) or she may have to abandon her child and abscond to London where she can still pretend to be a maid, as in “Under and over” (1. 264-265). The most representative selection within this theme depicts women who do much to rebuff the advances of a suitor, hence protecting their virtue by not seeming too eager, but who are eventually persuaded. Evidencing the moralizing nature of these ballads, the most common rebuff comes in the form of an explicit and entertaining expression of distaste for the many ways in which the suitors’ vices could corrupt her as well.

Anxieties over drinking, gambling, and yielding to the enticements of “Punks,” are also voiced throughout these ballads. These maidens’ immediate rejections of their suitors manage to maintain a humorous overtone through both their subject matter and also the comic manner in which they are eventually won over with such sudden flippancy. Even ballads which seem to depart most severely in terms of subject, such as “A merry Ballad of a rich Maid that had 18. severall Suitors of severall Countries” (1. 248-249), which describes a woman who turns down all of her suitors, and “The kind hearted Maid” (1. 292-293), a tale of a remarkable woman who had so many lovers she does not know who the father of her child is, are actually very much aligned in terms of this humorous tone. In fact, these two ballads are quite similar in that they are primarily occupied not with explicating the qualities of the eponymous character but instead with mocking the Maid’s suitors or lovers. It seems that this category entails not the kind of love which pleases the lovers—or, even, any characters in the ballads, for no one seems completely safe from mockery—but, rather, “Love Pleasant” occasions the kind of love which pleases the listener.

~ Kris McAbee

Works Cited

Pepys, Samuel. The Pepys Ballads: Facsimile Volume. Ed. W.G. Day. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1987.