...eighteenth century. On September 2/th, 1713, Cotton Mather made the following entry in his diary : ' I am informed that the Minds and Manners of many People about the Country are much corrupted by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all...

...distribution59 of books, pamphlets, and broadsides had increased, for Mather recorded in his diary, in 1713, I am informed, that the Minds and Manners of many...Countrey. By way of Antidote, I would procure poetical ComM Coheleth: A Soul upon Recollection. Written by a Fellow of the Royal Society. Cotton Mather. 1720....

...the better, she wou'd ask for Books of Gallantry." In 1713 Cotton Mather was so much annoyed by the "foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey," that he wanted, "by way of Antidote," to issue "poetical Composures full of Piety" — including some...

...in his diary of September 27, 1713, viewed with alarm the popularity of broadside ballads and songs: "I am informed that the Minds and Manners of many...much corrupted, by foolish Songs and Ballads which by the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey. By way of Antidote, I would procure...

...expressed some anxiety about this counterpublic potential. Cotton Mather wrote in his diary in 1713 that "the Minds and Manners of many People about the...by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Peddlars carry into all parts of the Countrey."51 Unfortunately, we know relatively little about this...

...that occupation in our period, but it did not die with him, for Cotton Mather attacked it in 1711: "the Minds and Manners of many People about the Countrey...the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey."57 These foolish objects were probably imported, which Gray could well have afforded to do....

...Worlds of Wonder, 21-70. Rosenbach quotes a worried Cotton Mather's diary entry for September 27, 1713: "I am informed that the Minds and Manners of many...by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Peddlars carry into all parts of the Countrey" (xxxix-xl). 25. See Welch, xxiv; Neuberg, passim; Darton,...

...that of cheap commercial goods. The Reverend Cotton Mather thus complained in a diary entry in 1713: "I am informed, that the Minds and Manners of many...and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey."' Almost anything could inspire a broadside ballad: the settlement of the North American colonies, Indian...

...concerned that the singing of sacred music would be neglected. He wrote into his Diary, 24 September 1713: "I am informed that the Minds and Manners of many People about the Country are much corrupted by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Pedlers carry into all...

...88-95. In 1711 Cotton Mather lamented that "the Minds and Manners of many People about the Counlrey are much corrupted, by foolish Songs and Ballads,...the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Country," cited in Amory and Hall, Colonial Book, 102. In the seventeenth century such items were almost...