"A Frog he would a-wooing go"

Your correspondent T. S. D. is certainly right in his notion that the ballad of "A frog he would a-wooing go" is very old, however fanciful may be his conjecture about its personal or political application to Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. That it could not refer to "the Cavaliers and the Roundheads," another of T. S. D.'s notions, is clear from the fact, that it was entered at Stationers' Hall in November, 1581; as appears by the quotation made by Mr. Payne Collier, in his second volume of *Extracts*, printed for the Shakspeare Society last year. It runs thus:— "Edward White. Lycensed unto him,…