Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets

A lively anthology of Restoration verse, this collection brings together a dozen poets whose songs, sonnets and witty drolleries once fluttered through the courts and secret hide‑aways of mid‑seventeenth‑century England. The pieces balance light‑hearted merriment with a subtle undercurrent of the era’s turmoil, offering listeners a taste of the lyrical humor that flourished even as the nation wrestled with political upheaval. Each poem is presented with careful notes and occasional illustrations, letting the original rhythm and wordplay shine through for modern ears.

The editor’s introduction frames the works against the backdrop of civil war, the rise and fall of the Protectorate, and the cautious optimism that greeted the restoration of the monarchy. Readers of the time risked severe punishment to keep these verses alive, and that clandestine spirit of defiance still hums beneath the verses. Listening now feels like stepping into a hidden garden where poetry served both as entertainment and a quiet act of resistance.