Broadside Love: A Comparison of Reading with Digital Tools versus Deep Knowledge in the Ballads of Samuel Pepys

Abstract

This essay explores the ways in which one portion of the ballads, those having to do with Love Pleasant (a category Pepys created and which was the largest in his collection), deal with the notion of love as typified in cheap print. This comparative analysis is done through the use of digital tools and slow/deep reading. I explore what digital textual analysis brings to the table when dealing with a large, but pre-selected, dataset in which the elements should share many common elements; how false data can be identified and winnowed out if one is just beginning work on broadside ballads; and, finally, what is the best way to interleave digital tools with slow reading.