Broadside entitled 'Elegy'

Commentary

This memorial notice begins: 'Elegy / N / The much to be Lamented Death, / OF / LOYAL MARGARET / Who Departed this Life June the 6th 1717.' The elegy begins: 'Ye Loyalists your weeds put on, / Of Sable black, sure Marks of moan'.

Very little contextual information has been included on this sheet, which reinforces the fact the these sheets were the ephemeral notices and information of their day. The publisher here assumes prior public knowledge of the person and the situation. It is difficult now to tell who 'loyal Margaret' was, as she would have lived through one of the greatest periods of civil and political unrest. She may even have simply been a literary motif.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information often for entertainment, such as memorials and eulogies. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Although many of the people are now lost to researchers, their stories offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in.

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