Turning now from technique,—from treatment of plot, of setting, of the supernatural,—to style in the narrower sense, we find that the comments are again largely in the way of pointing out flaws, or traits which are not characteristic of the true ballad, and which are due to the peculiar conditions of ballad transmission. From such negative comments may be inferred, again, the stylistic marks of the true ballad. Thus, in the first place, ballad style is artless and homely. InAndrew Lammie(233):
Her bloom was like the springing flowerThat hails the rosy morning,With innocence and graceful meinHer beauteous form adorning.
Her bloom was like the springing flowerThat hails the rosy morning,With innocence and graceful meinHer beauteous form adorning.
Her bloom was like the springing flowerThat hails the rosy morning,With innocence and graceful meinHer beauteous form adorning.
Her bloom was like the springing flower
That hails the rosy morning,
With innocence and graceful mein
Her beauteous form adorning.
and
‘No kind of vice eer staind my life,Or hurt my virgin honour;My youthful heart was won by love,But death will me exoner’ (C, 2, 42).
‘No kind of vice eer staind my life,Or hurt my virgin honour;My youthful heart was won by love,But death will me exoner’ (C, 2, 42).
‘No kind of vice eer staind my life,Or hurt my virgin honour;My youthful heart was won by love,But death will me exoner’ (C, 2, 42).
‘No kind of vice eer staind my life,
Or hurt my virgin honour;
My youthful heart was won by love,
But death will me exoner’ (C, 2, 42).
are “not homely enough.”[301]Moreover,
‘At Fyvie’s yetts there grows a flower,It grows baith braid and bonny;There’s a daisie in the midst o it,And it’s ca’d by Andrew Lammie’ (A, 1.).
‘At Fyvie’s yetts there grows a flower,It grows baith braid and bonny;There’s a daisie in the midst o it,And it’s ca’d by Andrew Lammie’ (A, 1.).
‘At Fyvie’s yetts there grows a flower,It grows baith braid and bonny;There’s a daisie in the midst o it,And it’s ca’d by Andrew Lammie’ (A, 1.).
‘At Fyvie’s yetts there grows a flower,
It grows baith braid and bonny;
There’s a daisie in the midst o it,
And it’s ca’d by Andrew Lammie’ (A, 1.).
“the mystical verses with which A and B begin are also not quite artless.”[302]The ninth stanza ofThe New-Slain Knight(263) “is pretty, but not quite artless.”[303]In the true ballad the conceit is out of place. Scott’s version (C) ofThomas Rymer(37) closes with two satirical stanzas not popular in style. “‘The repugnance of Thomas to be debarred the use of falsehood when he should find it convenient,’ may have, as Scott says, ‘a comic effect,’ but is, for a ballad, a miserable conceit.”[304]InThe Mother’s Malison(216), A 81-2, C 101-2,
Make me your wrack as I come back,But spare me as I go,
Make me your wrack as I come back,But spare me as I go,
Make me your wrack as I come back,But spare me as I go,
Make me your wrack as I come back,
But spare me as I go,
the conceit (from Martial) “does not overwell suit a popular ballad.”[305]The literary manner is thus to be contrasted with the popular. InEdward(13) “the word ‘brand,’ in the first stanza, is possibly more literary than popular; further than this the language is entirely fit.”[306]OfEarl Brand(7) “A a has suffered less from literary revision than ... A c.”[307]This revision may be illustrated by the following stanza:
To a maiden true he’ll give his hand,To the king’s daughter o fair England,To a prize that was won by a slain brother’s hand,
To a maiden true he’ll give his hand,To the king’s daughter o fair England,To a prize that was won by a slain brother’s hand,
To a maiden true he’ll give his hand,To the king’s daughter o fair England,To a prize that was won by a slain brother’s hand,
To a maiden true he’ll give his hand,
To the king’s daughter o fair England,
To a prize that was won by a slain brother’s hand,
which c substitutes for a 32:
This has not been the death o ane,But it’s been that of fair seventeen.
This has not been the death o ane,But it’s been that of fair seventeen.
This has not been the death o ane,But it’s been that of fair seventeen.
This has not been the death o ane,
But it’s been that of fair seventeen.
version from the English border, has unfortunately been improved by some literary pen.”[308]These improvements consist in part of descriptions of the lady’s states of mind;[309]for example:@
To think of the prisoner her heart was sore,Her love it was much but her pity was more.The words that he said on her fond heart smote,She knew not in sooth if she lived or not.She looked to his face, and it kythed so unkindThat her fast coming tears soon rendered her blind.(Sts. 3, 9, 10.)
To think of the prisoner her heart was sore,Her love it was much but her pity was more.The words that he said on her fond heart smote,She knew not in sooth if she lived or not.She looked to his face, and it kythed so unkindThat her fast coming tears soon rendered her blind.(Sts. 3, 9, 10.)
To think of the prisoner her heart was sore,Her love it was much but her pity was more.
To think of the prisoner her heart was sore,
Her love it was much but her pity was more.
The words that he said on her fond heart smote,She knew not in sooth if she lived or not.
The words that he said on her fond heart smote,
She knew not in sooth if she lived or not.
She looked to his face, and it kythed so unkindThat her fast coming tears soon rendered her blind.
She looked to his face, and it kythed so unkind
That her fast coming tears soon rendered her blind.
(Sts. 3, 9, 10.)
(Sts. 3, 9, 10.)
Jamie Telfer(190) “was retouched for the Border Minstrelsy, nobody can say how much. The 36th stanza is in Hardyknute style.”[310]
OfHughie Grame(191), B, 3, 8, “are obviously, as Cromek says, the work of Burns, and the same is true of 103-4.”[311]The Famous Flower of Serving-Men(106), an “English broadside, which may be reasonably believed to be formed upon a predecessor in the popular style,[312]was given in Percy’sReliques, ..., ‘from a written copy containing some improvements (perhaps modern ones).’ These improvements are execrable in style and in matter, so far as there is new matter, but not in so glaring contrast with the groundwork as literary emendations of traditional ballads.”[313]Such contrast is found in the “hack-rhymester lines” inBewick and Graham(211, 73, 192), which are “not up to the mark of the general style.”[314]Similarly,King Henry(32) “as publishedby Jamieson ... is increased by interpolation to thirty-four stanzas [from twenty]. ‘The interpolations will be found enclosed in brackets,’ but a painful contrast of style of itself distinguishes them.”[315]Editorial changes are, however, in some cases confined to slight verbal variations, where the contrast is less evident or painful.[316]
Yet, in spite of its artless, homely, and non-literary style, the ballad is not without conventions of its own. Most striking of these is the use of “commonplaces” or passages which recur in many ballads, like:
When bells were rung and mass was sung,And a’ men bound to bed;
When bells were rung and mass was sung,And a’ men bound to bed;
When bells were rung and mass was sung,And a’ men bound to bed;
When bells were rung and mass was sung,
And a’ men bound to bed;
or,
O whan he came to broken briggsHe bent his bow and swam,An whan he came to the green grass growinHe slackd his shoone and ran.[317]
O whan he came to broken briggsHe bent his bow and swam,An whan he came to the green grass growinHe slackd his shoone and ran.[317]
O whan he came to broken briggsHe bent his bow and swam,An whan he came to the green grass growinHe slackd his shoone and ran.[317]
O whan he came to broken briggs
He bent his bow and swam,
An whan he came to the green grass growin
He slackd his shoone and ran.[317]
Another convention is the complete repetition of the message by the messenger. Thus inFair Mary of Wallington(91, A) “the stanza which should convey ... part of the message is wanting, but may be confidently supplied from the errand-boy’s repetition.”[318]Another form of repetition occurs in the narration of similar incidents by different ballads. “There is a general resemblance between the rescue of Robin Hood in stanzas 61-81 and that of William of Cloudesly in Adam Bell, 56-94, and the precaution suggested by Much in the eighth stanza corresponds to the warning given by Adam in the eighth stanza of the other ballad. There is a verbal agreement in stanzas 71 of the first and 66 of the second. Such agreements or repetitions are numerous in the Robin Hood ballads, and in other traditional ballads, where similar situations occur.”[319]
In the course of degeneration, ballads retain, but distort, the commonplace. Thus inLord Thomas and Lady Margaret(261) “B 143, 4is a commonplace, which, in inferior traditional ballads, is often, as here, an out-of-place. B 15, 16 is another commonplace, of the silly sort.”[320]“Hacknied commonplaces” occur inAuld Matrons(249), stanzas 2-5;[321]“frippery commonplaces,” inThe White Fisher(264), stanzas 2, 7, 8, 12.[322]
Turning now to the emotional qualities of ballad style, we find that the ghost ballad, in spite (or perhaps because) of the absence of special treatment noted above, is, at its best, “impressive.” The scene at the grave inSweet William’s Ghost(77 C 11-13) “may be judged grotesque, but is not trivial or unimpressive. These verses may be supposed not to have belonged to the earliest form of the ballad, and one does not miss them from A, but they cannot be an accretion of modern date.”[323]InThe Wife of Usher’s Well(79) “there is no indication that the sons come back to forbid obstinate grief, as the dead often do. But supplying a motive would add nothing to the impressiveness of these verses. Nothing that we have is more profoundly affecting.”[324]The Suffolk Miracle(272) is to be contrasted with the continental versions, “one of the most remarkable tales and one of the most impressive and beautiful ballads of the European continent.”[325]Bewick and Graham(211), in spite of certain defects, “is a fine-spirited ballad as it stands, and very infectious.”[326]Walter Lesly(296) is “a late, but life-like and spirited ballad.”[327]The Wee Wee Man(38) is an “extremely airy and sparkling little ballad.”[328]Andrew Lammie(233) “is a homely ditty, but the gentleness and fidelity of Annie under the brutal behavior of her family are genuinely pathetic, and justify the remarkable popularitywhich the ballad has enjoyed in the north of Scotland.”[329]Contrasted with the cynicalTwa Corbiesof Scott’s Minstrelsy isThe Three Ravens(26), a “tender little English ballad.”[330]In theGest: “Nothing was ever more felicitously told, even in the bestditorfabliau, than the ‘process’ of Our Lady’s repaying the money which had been lent on her security. Robin’s slyly significant welcome to the monk upon learning that he is of Saint Mary Abbey, his professed anxiety that Our Lady is wroth with him because she has not sent him his pay, John’s comfortable suggestion that perhaps the monk has brought it, Robin’s incidental explanation of the little business in which the Virgin was a party, and request to see the silver in case the monk has come upon her affair, are beautiful touches of humor, and so delicate that it is all but brutal to point them out.”[331]The tales which are cited as parallels toQueen Eleanor’s Confession(156) all “have the cynical Oriental character, and, to a healthy taste, are far surpassed by the innocuous humor of the English ballad.”[332]While we need not question the substantial genuineness ofFause Foodrage(89), “we must admit that the form in which we have received it is an enfeebled one, without much flavor or color.”[333]The Suffolk Miracle(272) preserves the story only in a “blurred, enfeebled, and disfigured shape.”[334]Version B of theCheviot(162) is “very seriously enfeebled.”[335]
The lyrical quality,—the fact that the ballad was made to be sung,—must not be lost sight of. “Fair Annie’s fortunes have not only been charmingly sung, as here [in the ballad ofFair Annie(62)]; they have also been exquisitelytoldin a favorite lay of Marie de France.”[336]The superior lyrical quality ofThe Bonny Birdy(82) “makes up for its inferiority [toLittle Musgrave(81)] as a story, so that onthe whole it cannot be prized much lower than the noble English ballad.”[337]Thus lyrical quality is to be regarded as no less significant than plot as a trait of the true ballad.The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice(40), “after the nature of the best popular ballad, forces you to chant and will not be read.”[338]EvenThe Jolly Pindar of Wakefield, (124) “is thoroughly lyrical, ... and was pretty well sung to pieces before it ever was printed.”[339]“It is not ... always easy to say whether an isolated stanza belonged to a ballad or a song;”[340]and Professor Child speaks even of the whole ofBessy Bell and Mary Gray(201) as “this little ballad, or song.”[341]OfLord Lovel(75) he says: “It can scarcely be too often repeated that such ballads as this were meant only to be sung, not at all to be recited.... ‘Lord Lovel’ is especially one of those which, for their due effect, require the support of a melody, and almost equally the comment of a burden. No burden is preserved in the case of ‘Lord Lovel,’ but we are not to infer that there never was one. The burden, which is at least as important as the instrumental accompaniment of modern songs, sometimes, in these little tragedies, foreshadows calamity from the outset, sometimes ... is a cheerful-sounding formula, which in the upshot enhances by contrast the gloom of the conclusion. ‘A simple but life-like story, supported by the burden and the air, these are the means by which such old romances seek to produce an impression.’”[342]The Elfin Knight(2 A) “is the only example, so far as I remember, which our ballads afford of a burden of this kind, one that is of greater extent than the stanza with which it was sung, though this kind of burden seems to have been common enough with old songs and carols.”[343]
The English and Scottish Popular Balladsof 1882-1898 has naturally superseded theEnglish and Scottish Balladsof 1857-1859, and Professor Child himself shared the general tendency to underestimate the real value of the earlier collection. It was of course made on a different plan; its limits were not so clearly defined, and it did not attempt to give every version of every known ballad. Many of the sources, moreover, were not yet open. One is, then, surprised to find that, of the three hundred and five ballads printed in the later collection, only ninety are new; and these are, for the most part, unimportant additions to the body of ballad literature. They are distributed as follows: 15 in volumeI, 16 inII, 11 inIII, 25 inIV, 23 inV. Thus 59 of the 90 occur in the last three volumes; of these there is not one of first importance. Of the remaining 31 not more than 10 can be regarded as really valuable additions, though such an estimate must of necessity be based more or less upon personal impression. Some of these were already accessible, in Buchan’s versions, or elsewhere:Willie’s Lyke-Wake(25),Lizie Wan(51),The King’s Dochter Lady Jean(52),Brown Robyn’s Confession(57),Fair Mary of Wallington(91). These, doubtless, were omitted because of the nature of their subject-matter; it was only in the later collection that Professor Child “had no discretion.”[344]Other important ballads were not yet accessible, or not yet discovered:St. Stephen and Herod(22),The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea(36),The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice(40),The Unquiet Grave(78),The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry(113). Of the ten, only four are included in Professor Gummere’s collection. The main addition of the later collection is thus rather in the way ofnew versions of important ballads, or of more authentic versions based directly upon the manuscripts; in the citation of a larger number of foreign parallels; and, generally, in the matter contained in the introductions.
TheBalladscontained 115 pieces which do not appear in the later collection. The nature of such material, since it is excluded from the “complete”English and Scottish Popular Ballads, is significant as throwing some additional light upon Professor Child’s conception. In many cases the reason for exclusion is made clear by Professor Child himself, in comments in the earlier or in the later collection. Of the whole group of lays and romances contained in Book I of theBallads, he says: “Some of the longer pieces in this book are not of the nature of ballads, and require an apology. They were admitted before the limits of the work had been determined with exactness.”[345]If such pieces as these do not fulfil the lyrical requirement of the true ballad, others cannot fulfil the requirement of plot, and the songs, of theBallads, likeA Lyke Wake Dirge,Fair Helen of Kirconnel, orThe Lowlands of Holland[346]find no place in the later collection. TheBalladscontains also translations from the Danish, and the original and translation of a modern Greek parallel of the Lenore story; these are naturally not included inThe English and Scottish Popular Ballads.
The later collection is much more chary of the admission of broadsides or sheet-ballads: in many cases they are relegated to introductions or appendices; in many more, omitted.William Guisemanis cited merely, underBrown Robin’s Confession(57), as “a copy, improved by tradition, of the ‘lament’ in ‘William Grismond’s Downfal,’ a broadside of 1650.”[347]The Lament of the Border Widow, which occurs in Book VI of theBallads, “shows broader traces of the sheet-ballad,” and is quoted in the introduction to No 106 for “those who are interested in such random inventions (as, under pardon, they must be called).”[348]OfThe Lady Isabella’s TragedyProfessor Child says in the later collection: “Though perhaps absolutely the silliest ballad that ever was made, and very far from silly sooth, the broadside was traditionally propagated in Scotland without so much change as is usual in such cases.”[349]Even in theBalladsone finds this comment: “The three following pieces [The Spanish Virgin,Lady Isabella’s Tragedy,The Cruel Black] are here inserted merely as specimens of a class of tales, horrible in their incidents but feeble in their execution, of which whole dreary volumes were printed and read about two centuries ago. They were all of them, probably, founded on Italian novels.”[350]Although theBalladsincludesMacpherson’s Rant, it is declared “worthy of a hangman’s pen.”[351]A number of tales which employ a highly artificial stanza, such asThe Fray of Suport,The Raid of the Reidswire, orThe Flemish Insurrection, do not find their way into the later collection.
Traces of the modern editor or author become less common in the later collection. Versions “modernized and completed by Percy” (Book I, Nos. 1 b and 5 b) are excluded. The cynicalTwa Corbiesappears only in the introduction toThe Three Ravens; and Motherwell’s edition, declared already in theBalladsto be a “modernized version,”[352]does not appear at all. Motherwell’sBonnieGeorge Campbellsuffers a like fate, and this, we infer, because “Motherwell made up his ‘Bonnie George Campbell’ from B, C, D.”[353]As, no doubt, not merely modernized but modern,Sir Rolandis excluded. “This fragment, Motherwell tells us, was communicated to him by an ingenious friend, who remembered having heard it sung in his youth. He does not vouch for its antiquity, and we have little or no hesitation in pronouncing it a modern composition.”[354]Similarly,Lady Anne“is on the face of it a modern composition, with extensive variations, on the theme of the popular ballad.”[355]It is printed in the appendix to No 20.Earl Richardis “an entirely modern composition, excepting only the twenty lines of Herd’s fragment.”[356]OfAuld MaitlandProfessor Child says: “Notwithstanding the authority of Scott and Leyden, I am inclined to agree with Mr Aytoun, that this ballad is a modern imitation, or if not that, a comparatively recent composition. It is with reluctance that I make for it the room it requires.”[357]The essential anonymity of the ballad, in Professor Child’s final conception, naturally excludes pieces like Henryson’sRobene and MakyneandThe Bludy Serk, which had found their way into theBallads.[358]
There are but few instances of definite praise, as ballads, of pieces included in the earlier collection and excluded from the later.The Children in the Woodis said to be “perhaps the most popular of all English ballads. Its merit is attested by the favor it has enjoyed with so many generations, and was vindicated to a cold and artificial age by the kindly pen of Addison.”[359]We must not forget,however, that Professor Child was fifty years nearer the kindly pen of Addison. The cold and artificial age, moreover, was also sentimental and moral; and why, with it, this ballad was so popular, a single stanza will show:
You that executors be made,And overseers ekeOf children that be fatherless,And infants mild and meek;Take you example by this thing,And yield to each his right,Lest God with such like miseryeYour wicked minds requite (vv. 153 ff.).
You that executors be made,And overseers ekeOf children that be fatherless,And infants mild and meek;Take you example by this thing,And yield to each his right,Lest God with such like miseryeYour wicked minds requite (vv. 153 ff.).
You that executors be made,And overseers ekeOf children that be fatherless,And infants mild and meek;Take you example by this thing,And yield to each his right,Lest God with such like miseryeYour wicked minds requite (vv. 153 ff.).
You that executors be made,
And overseers eke
Of children that be fatherless,
And infants mild and meek;
Take you example by this thing,
And yield to each his right,
Lest God with such like miserye
Your wicked minds requite (vv. 153 ff.).
The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bednall’s Greenis said to be printed from a modern broadside, yet it is characterized as “this favorite popular ballad.”[360]The Nutbrowne Maidis “this matchless poem,” “this beautiful old ballad.”[361]Yet, clearly, it is not a popular ballad at all.
On the whole, it is not difficult to see why the 115 ballads are excluded from the later collection; and one gets the impression that, had Professor Child chosen to enforce the conception of the ballad which he already had in mind, most of them would have been excluded from the earlier collection as well. This impression is deepened by an examination of the comments scattered through theBallads.
He already regarded the ballad as inimitable:[362]“The exclusion of the ‘Imitations’ ... may possibly excite the regret of a few.... Whatever may be the merit of the productions in question, they are never less likely to obtain credit for it, than when they are brought into comparison with their professed models.”[363]Again,Sir Patrick Spence, “if not ancient, has been always accepted as such by the most skilful judges, and is a solitary instance of a successfulimitation, in manner and spirit, of the best specimens of authentic minstrelsy.”[364]
Professor Child had already fallen foul of the editors, and their alterations and interpolations.[365]It is interesting to see how, in many cases, he anticipated the corrections and comments made possible, for the later collection, by access to the manuscripts. OfThe Child of Ellehe says: “So extensive are Percy’s alterations and additions, that the reader will have no slight difficulty in detecting the few traces that are left of the genuine composition.”[366]Compare: “So much of Percy’s ‘Child of Elle’ as was genuine, which, upon the printing of his manuscript, turned out to be one fifth.”[367]Again, Percy acknowledges interpolations, which “might with some confidence be pointed out. Among them are certainly most, if not all, of the last twelve stanzas of the Second Part, which include the catastrophe to the story.”[368]In Percy, he says in the later collection,Sir Cawline“is extended to nearly twice the amount of what is found in the manuscript, and a tragical turn is forced upon the story.”[369]Again: “We have givenGil Morriceas it stands in theReliques(iii. 132,) degrading to the margin those stanzas which are undoubtedly spurious.”[370]The stanzas thus degraded turned out to be actually spurious.[371]Condemnation of Buchan is scattered throughout theBallads. Thus: “Some resolution has been exercised, and much disgust suppressed, in retaining certain pieces from Buchan’s collections, so strong is the suspicion that, after having been procured from very inferior sources, they were tampered with by the editor.”[372]Again: “One uncommonly tasteless stanza [41, A, 53], the interpolation of some nursery-maid,[373]is here omitted. Too many of Buchan’s ballads have suffered in this way, and have become both prolix and vulgar.”[374]Even in theBalladsProfessor Child placed “no confidence in any of Allan Cunningham’ssouvenirsof Scottish song,”[375]and his early suspicions[376]of the character of Cunningham’s version of Gil Brenton are confirmed in the later collection.[377]King Henry, printed in the earlier collection “without the editor’s [Jamieson’s] interpolations,”[378]appears in the same form in the later, except that stanza 14 is printed in small type, as not being in the Jamieson-Brown MS. Again, inThe Bonny Birdy, “the lines supplied by Jamieson have been omitted.”[379]There is an interesting comment on these lines in the later collection.[380]
Professor Child was already aware that change of nationality was accompanied by change of the scene of action.[381]He quoted Scott’s account of the locality ofThe Douglas Tragedy[==Earl Brand(7, B)], and added: “After so circumstantial a description of the scene, ... the reader may be amused to see the same story told in various Scandinavian ballads, with a no less plausible resemblance to actual history. This, as has already been pointed out underGuy of WarwickandKempion,[382]is an ordinary occurrence in the transmission of legends.”[383]
He noted, too, the tendency of ballads to combine: “The natural desire of men to hear more of characters in whom they have become strongly interested, has frequently stimulatedthe attempt to continue successful fictions.”[384]Sweet William’s Ghostis often made the sequel to other ballads.[385]
So far as subject-matter is concerned, we find in theBalladsthe same conception of the relation of ballad and fact.Jane Shore“adheres to matter of fact with a fidelity very uncommon,”[386]and this is, perhaps, one reason why it does not find a place in the later collection.[387]We may contrast, on the other hand, the two statements in regard to the relation ofHind Hornand the romance: “Metrical romances ... are known in many cases to have been adapted for the entertainment of humbler hearers, by abridgment in the form of ballads.” He regardsHind Hornas a case of this sort.[388]
Style and plot, finally, are a test of genuineness: “I cannot assent to the praise bestowed by Scott onThe Outlaw Murray. The story lacks point and the style is affected—not that of the unconscious poet of the realtraditionalballad.”[389]Though there without comment, it is placed at the very end of the later collection.
From a comment like this it is obvious that Professor Child already had in mind the conception of “a realtraditionalballad,” a “specimen of authentic minstrelsy.”[390]Although he admitted to the earlier collection lays, romances, songs, broadsides and sheet-ballads, as well as modern or modernized compositions, yet he was aware that all these differed from the true ballad. This true ballad, he conceived, was inimitable, in matter and manner. In transmission it might suffer, from the invention of a nursery-maid, from Buchan’s beggar, from a “hangman’s pen,” from the modern editors. It drew its subject-matter from fact (to which itwas not loyal), from romances, from other ballads. In quality the subject-matter was not “horrible.” In style the true ballad was not feeble in execution, not prolix and vulgar, and not affected. The earlier conception was not as complete as the later, and it was by no means so rigorously enforced. In regard to specific compositions, there was, as is to be expected, some change of opinion. But the significant fact is that for at least forty years Professor Child retained without essential change his conception of the traditional ballad as a distinct literary type.
We may now bring together the passages in which Professor Child declared certain ballads to be of the true “popular” or “traditional” type. The fewness of such passages is at first surprising, yet it clearly formed no part of a set purpose to include in his introductions estimates of this kind, and such “appreciations” seem to have been either spontaneous,—springing, as in the case ofJohnie Cock, from his delight in the ballad with which he was concerned,—or intended, as in the case ofEdward, as answer to his predecessors’ doubts of authenticity. On ballads likeLord Randal,Babylon,Hind Horn,Clerk Saunders,Fair Margaret and Sweet William, there is no such comment. It would seem, no doubt, in such cases obviously unnecessary. Nevertheless the list is fairly representative. We have examples of the Domestic Ballad,—tragic, inEarl Brand(7),Edward(13),Old Robin of Portingale(80),Little Musgrave(81),The Bonny Birdy(82); not tragic, inChild Waters(63),Young Beichan(53),Queen Eleanor’s Confession(156): we have examples of the Supernatural Ballad,—transformation, inThe Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea(36); fairy, inThomas Rymer(37); ghost, inThe Wifeof Usher’s Well(79): we have examples of the Border Ballad inCaptain Car(178 F) andJock o the Side(187): of the Outlaw Ballad inJohnie Cock(114), the Robin Hood ballads, 117-121: of the Heroic Ballad inKing Estmere(60),Sir Aldingar(59),Sir Patrick Spens(58 A).
Johnie Cock(114): “This precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad.”III, 1.Edward(13): “The word ‘brand,’ in the first stanza, is possibly more literary than popular; further than this the language is entirely fit. The affectedly antique spelling in Percy’s copy has given rise to vague suspicions concerning the authenticity of the ballad, or of the language: but as spelling will not make an old ballad, so it will not unmake one. We have, but do not need, the later traditional copy to prove the other genuine. ‘Edward’ is not only unimpeachable, but has ever been regarded as one of the noblest and most sterling specimens of the popular ballad.”I, 167.The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea(36): “Somewhat mutilated, and also defaced, though it be, this ballad has certainly never been retouched by a pen, but is pure tradition. It has the first stanza in common with ‘Kemp Owyne,’ and shares more than that with ‘Allison Gross.’ But it is independent of ‘Allison Gross,’ and has a far more original sound.”I, 315.Earl Brand(7): ... “has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition.”I, 88.The Wife of Usher’s Well(79): “A motive for the return of the wife’s three sons is not found in the fragments which remain to us.... But supplying a motive would add nothing to the impressiveness of these verses. Nothing that we have is more profoundly affecting.”II, 238.Thomas Rymer(37): “B ... has been corrupted here and there, but only by tradition.”I, 317.“The fairy adventures of Thomas and of Ogier have the essential points in common, and even the particular trait that the fairy is taken to be the Virgin. The occurrence of this trait again in the ballad, viewed in connection with the general similarity of the two, will leave no doubt that the ballad had its source in the romance. Yet it is an entirely popular ballad as to style,[391]and must be of considerable age, though the earliest version(A) can be traced at furthest only into the first half of the last century.”I, 319 f.Captain Car(178): “F is purely traditional and has one fine stanza not found in any of the foregoing:@Out then spake the lady Margaret,As she stood on the stair;The fire was at her goud garters,The lowe was at her hair.”III, 429.@Queen Eleanor’s Confession(156): “There is reason to question whether this [F] and the other recited versions are anything more than traditional variations of printed copies. The ballad seems first to have got into print in the latter part of the seventeenth century, but was no doubt circulating orally sometime before that, for it is in the truly popular tone.”III, 255.Robin Hood and the Tanner(126): “The sturdy Arthur a Bland is well hit off, and, bating the sixteenth and thirty-fifth stanzas, the ballad has a good popular ring. There is corruption at 83, 123, and perhaps 133.”III, 137.The earliest Robin Hood ballads (117-121) “are among the best of all ballads, and perhaps none in English please so many and please so long.”III, 42.Robin Hood and the Monk(119): “Too much could not be said in praise of this ballad, but nothing need be said. It is very perfection in its kind; and yet we have others equally good, and beyond doubt should have had more, if they had been written down early, as this was, and had not been left to the chances of tradition. Even writing would not have saved all, but writing has saved this (in large part), and in excellent form.”III, 95.Child Waters(63): “This charming ballad, which has perhaps no superior in English, and if not in English perhaps nowhere.”II, 84. (“Caution is imperative where so much ground is covered, and no man should be confident that he can do absolute justice to poetry in a tongue that he was not born to; but foreign poetry is as likely to be rated too high as to be undervalued.”II, 84, n.)Jock o the Side(187): “The ballad is one of the best in the world, and enough to make a horse-trooper of any young borderer, had he lacked the impulse.”III, 477.Sir Patrick Spens(58, A): “This admired and most admirable ballad.” “It would be hard to point out in ballad poetry, or other, happier or more refined touches than the two stanzas in A which portray the bootless waiting of the ladies for the return of the seafarers.”II, 17 f.[392]Young Beichan(53): “A favorite ballad and most deservedly.”I, 455.King Estmere(60): “While we cannot but be vexed that so distinguished a ballad, not injured much, so far as we can see, by time, should not come down to us as it came to Percy, our loss must not be exaggerated. The changes made by the editor, numerous enough, no doubt, cannot be very material until we approach the end. Stanzas 63-66 are entirely suspicious, and it may even be questioned whether the manuscript contained a word that is in them.”II, 49.Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard(81): “The noble English ballad.”II, 260.The Bonny Birdy(82): “A fine ballad upon the same theme.”II, 243.Old Robin of Portingale(80): “This fine ballad.”II, 240.Sir Aldingar(69): “This ballad, one of the most important of all that the Percy manuscript has saved from oblivion.”II, 33.Robin Hood’s Death(120): “B, though found only in late garlands, is in the fine old strain.”III, 103.
Johnie Cock(114): “This precious specimen of the unspoiled traditional ballad.”III, 1.
Edward(13): “The word ‘brand,’ in the first stanza, is possibly more literary than popular; further than this the language is entirely fit. The affectedly antique spelling in Percy’s copy has given rise to vague suspicions concerning the authenticity of the ballad, or of the language: but as spelling will not make an old ballad, so it will not unmake one. We have, but do not need, the later traditional copy to prove the other genuine. ‘Edward’ is not only unimpeachable, but has ever been regarded as one of the noblest and most sterling specimens of the popular ballad.”I, 167.
The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea(36): “Somewhat mutilated, and also defaced, though it be, this ballad has certainly never been retouched by a pen, but is pure tradition. It has the first stanza in common with ‘Kemp Owyne,’ and shares more than that with ‘Allison Gross.’ But it is independent of ‘Allison Gross,’ and has a far more original sound.”I, 315.
Earl Brand(7): ... “has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition.”I, 88.
The Wife of Usher’s Well(79): “A motive for the return of the wife’s three sons is not found in the fragments which remain to us.... But supplying a motive would add nothing to the impressiveness of these verses. Nothing that we have is more profoundly affecting.”II, 238.
Thomas Rymer(37): “B ... has been corrupted here and there, but only by tradition.”I, 317.
“The fairy adventures of Thomas and of Ogier have the essential points in common, and even the particular trait that the fairy is taken to be the Virgin. The occurrence of this trait again in the ballad, viewed in connection with the general similarity of the two, will leave no doubt that the ballad had its source in the romance. Yet it is an entirely popular ballad as to style,[391]and must be of considerable age, though the earliest version(A) can be traced at furthest only into the first half of the last century.”I, 319 f.
Captain Car(178): “F is purely traditional and has one fine stanza not found in any of the foregoing:@
Out then spake the lady Margaret,As she stood on the stair;The fire was at her goud garters,The lowe was at her hair.”III, 429.@
Out then spake the lady Margaret,As she stood on the stair;The fire was at her goud garters,The lowe was at her hair.”III, 429.@
Out then spake the lady Margaret,As she stood on the stair;The fire was at her goud garters,The lowe was at her hair.”III, 429.@
Out then spake the lady Margaret,
As she stood on the stair;
The fire was at her goud garters,
The lowe was at her hair.”III, 429.@
Queen Eleanor’s Confession(156): “There is reason to question whether this [F] and the other recited versions are anything more than traditional variations of printed copies. The ballad seems first to have got into print in the latter part of the seventeenth century, but was no doubt circulating orally sometime before that, for it is in the truly popular tone.”III, 255.
Robin Hood and the Tanner(126): “The sturdy Arthur a Bland is well hit off, and, bating the sixteenth and thirty-fifth stanzas, the ballad has a good popular ring. There is corruption at 83, 123, and perhaps 133.”III, 137.
The earliest Robin Hood ballads (117-121) “are among the best of all ballads, and perhaps none in English please so many and please so long.”III, 42.
Robin Hood and the Monk(119): “Too much could not be said in praise of this ballad, but nothing need be said. It is very perfection in its kind; and yet we have others equally good, and beyond doubt should have had more, if they had been written down early, as this was, and had not been left to the chances of tradition. Even writing would not have saved all, but writing has saved this (in large part), and in excellent form.”III, 95.
Child Waters(63): “This charming ballad, which has perhaps no superior in English, and if not in English perhaps nowhere.”II, 84. (“Caution is imperative where so much ground is covered, and no man should be confident that he can do absolute justice to poetry in a tongue that he was not born to; but foreign poetry is as likely to be rated too high as to be undervalued.”II, 84, n.)
Jock o the Side(187): “The ballad is one of the best in the world, and enough to make a horse-trooper of any young borderer, had he lacked the impulse.”III, 477.
Sir Patrick Spens(58, A): “This admired and most admirable ballad.” “It would be hard to point out in ballad poetry, or other, happier or more refined touches than the two stanzas in A which portray the bootless waiting of the ladies for the return of the seafarers.”II, 17 f.[392]
Young Beichan(53): “A favorite ballad and most deservedly.”I, 455.
King Estmere(60): “While we cannot but be vexed that so distinguished a ballad, not injured much, so far as we can see, by time, should not come down to us as it came to Percy, our loss must not be exaggerated. The changes made by the editor, numerous enough, no doubt, cannot be very material until we approach the end. Stanzas 63-66 are entirely suspicious, and it may even be questioned whether the manuscript contained a word that is in them.”II, 49.
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard(81): “The noble English ballad.”II, 260.
The Bonny Birdy(82): “A fine ballad upon the same theme.”II, 243.
Old Robin of Portingale(80): “This fine ballad.”II, 240.
Sir Aldingar(69): “This ballad, one of the most important of all that the Percy manuscript has saved from oblivion.”II, 33.
Robin Hood’s Death(120): “B, though found only in late garlands, is in the fine old strain.”III, 103.
Certain ballads are expressly condemned as not “traditional” or “popular”: