Martin Parker was an English ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 writer, and probably a London tavern-keeper.

Life

About 1625 he seems to have begun publishing ballads, a large number of which bearing his signature or his initials, M.P., are preserved in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...

 considered him the best ballad writer of his time. His sympathies were with the Royalist cause during the Civil War, and it was in support of the declining fortunes of Charles I of England

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 that he wrote the best known of his ballads, When the King enjoys his own again, which he first published in 1643, and which, after enjoying great popularity at the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

, became a favorite Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

 song in the 18th century. Parker also wrote a nautical ballad, Sailors for my Money, which in a revised version survives as When the stormy winds do blow. It is not known when he died, but the appearance in 1656 of a funeral elegy, in which the ballad writer was satirically celebrated is perhaps a correct indication of the date of his death.

1911 Britannica References

• The Roxburghe Ballads, vol. 3. (Ballad Soc., 9 vols., 1871–1899)
• Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (London, 1802)
• Ancient Songs and Ballads from Henry II. to the Revolution, ed. by W. C. Hazlitt (London, 1877)
• Sir S. E. Brydges and J. Haslewood, The British Bibliographer, vol. 2 (London, 1810)
• Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-poelica (London, 1860–1883).

See also

• Joad Raymond, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21326'Parker, Martin (fl.
  Floruit
  Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
  
  1624–1647)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography], Oxford University Press, 2004.

External links