Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy

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Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy is the title of a large collection of songs by Thomas d'Urfey, published between 1698 and 1720, which in its final, six-volume edition held over 1,000 songs and poems. The collection started as a single book compiled and published by Henry Playford who had succeeded his father John Playford as the leading music publisher of the period. Over the next two decades, Pills went through various editions and expanded into five volumes; in 1719 Thomas D'Urfey reordered and added to the work to produce a new edition (also in 5 volumes) with the title Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive, published by Jacob Tonson. Volumes I and II now consisted entirely of songs (words, not tunes) by D'Urfey. The edition sold out quickly and in the second printing D'Urfey reverted to the Pills title. He added Volume 6 in 1720.

[edit] Later versions

In 1920 William Giles Whittaker published "North Country Folk Song set for unaccompanied voices: Words from D'Urfey's "Pills to purge Melancholy". In 1956 Ed McCurdy recorded "When Dalliance Was In Flower (and Maidens Lost Their Heads) Vol 1". This is a more folky treatment that the later one by Will Holt. Three years later "Son of Daliance" came along. In the 1959 Will Holt published an album of 10 songs entitled "Pills To Purge Melancholy" (Stinson SLP78). The treatment is much more like the art song (accompanied by guitar and flute). The delivery is clear and every word is intelligible. The songs are almost all ribald. In 1966 Gerald Cockshutt orchestrated 10 of the songs for a set of dances called "Maddermarket Suite"

In 1968 S.A.J. Bradley published "Sixty Ribald Songs From Pills to Purge Melancholy: Sixty Songs with Music". This served as a source for several folk singers. In 1990 City Waites recorded "Pills To Purge Melancholy" (26 songs). They followed up in 1995 with "Bawdy Ballads of Old England". This time only a few of the songs were from U'Urfey's collection. In 2000 Hesperus recorded the album "My Thing Is My Own: Bawdy Songs of D'Urfey". In 2007 a 364-page edition of the collection appeared. It is not clear whether this contains the music as well as the words, or how many of songs are included.