[See = -MONGER.] One who deals in ballads: a. used contemptuously by Shakespeare, and by others in imitation, for: Ballad-maker.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 130. I had rather be a Kitten, and cry mew, Then one of these same Meeter Ballad-mongers.
1756. J. Warton, Ess. Pope (1782), I. vii. 356. Villon was merely a pert and insipid ballad monger.
1809. Byron, Bards & Rev., xii. Behold the ballad-monger Southey rise!
b. A seller of ballads.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. ix. An old paultry book … sold by the hawking Pedlars and Balladmongers.
1874. Motley, Barneveld, II. xviii. 252. All the ballad-mongers and broadsheet vendors of the town.
Hence Ballad-mongering vbl. sb.
1809. Byron, Bards & Rev., Argt. (MS.). The poet … revileth Walter Scott for … ballad-mongering.
