Although many seventeenth-century broadsides, popular ballads printed on a single sheet of paper and widely sold by street peddlers, were moralizing in nature, this is not evidence that most seventeenth-century people were serious about moral values
While over half of surviving broadsides contain moralizing statements, and it is known that many people purchased such compositions, it is not known why they did so, nor is it known how their own beliefs related to what they read
In many moralizing ballads, the moral content was confined to a single stanza expressing a pious sentiment tacked onto a sensationalized account of crime and adultery.