THE HISTORY OF WAT TYLER AND JACK STRAW.
Reading edition
Printed and Sold in Aldermary Church Yard.
This Chap-book gives a very fair account of the domestic troubles of Richard II.'s reign, especially of the poll-tax rising of 1381; but it stigmatizes as "scum," "rake shames," and "rake hells" those poor men who then rose against oppression.
The frontispiece represents Sir William Walworth, and gives due prominence to the famous dagger, with which he is said to have killed Wat Tyler, and which is still shown at Fishmonger's Hall.
There was a play, "The Life and Death of Iake Straw, a notable Rebell in England; who was kild in Smithfield by the Lord Maior of London—Printed at Lond. by Iohn Danter and are to be sold by William . Barley 1593;" and a tract, which was taken from the "Chronicle of the Schoolmaster of St. Albans," called "The just Reward of Rebels, or the Life and Death of Jack Straw and Wat Tyler 1642." There was also another little book, of which two editions appeared in 1654, called "The Idol of the Clownes or Insurrection of Wat the Tyler."