Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England | Page 2

the book
was quoted not only by English writers, but by some of the most
distinguished archaeologists on the continent.

It had always been my intention to form a collection of local songs,
illustrative of popular festivals, customs, manners, and dialects. As the
merit of having anticipated, and, in a great measure, accomplished this
project belongs exclusively to Mr. Dixon, so to that gentleman I have
now the pleasure of tendering my acknowledgments for the means of
enriching the Annotated Edition of the English Poets with a volume
which, in some respects, is the most curious and interesting of the
series.
Subsequently to the publication of his collection by the Percy Society,
Mr. Dixon had amassed additional materials of great value; and,
conscious that the work admitted of considerable improvement, both in
the way of omission and augmentation, he resolved upon the
preparation of a new edition. His reasons for rejecting certain portions
of the former volume are stated in the following extract from a
communication with which he has obliged me, and which may be
considered as his own introduction to the ensuing pages.
The editor had passed his earliest years in a romantic mountaindistrict
in the North of England, where old customs and manners,
and old
songs and ballads still linger. Under the influence of these associations,
he imbibed a passionate love for peasant rhymes; having little notion at
that time that the simple
minstrelsy which afforded him so much
delight could yield hardly less pleasure to those who cultivated more
artificial modes of poetry, and who knew little of the life of the
peasantry. His collection was not issued without diffidence; but the
result dissipated all apprehension as to the estimate in which these
essentially popular productions are held. The reception of the book,
indeed, far exceeded its merits; for he is bound in candour to say that it
was neither so complete nor so judiciously selected as it might have
been. Like almost all books issued by societies, it was got up in haste,
and hurried through the press. It
contained some things which were
out of place in such a work, but which were inserted upon solicitations
that could not have been very easily refused; and even where the matter
was unexceptionable, it sometimes happened that it was printed from
comparatively modern broadsides, for want of time to consult earlier
editions. In the interval which has since elapsed, all these defects and

shortcomings have been remedied. Several pieces, which had no

legitimate claims to the places they occupied, have been removed;
others have been collated with more ancient copies than the editor had
had access to previously; and the whole work has been
considerably
enlarged. In its present form it is strictly what its title-page implies--a
collection of poems, ballads, and songs preserved by tradition, and in
actual circulation, amongst the peasantry.
Bex, Canton de Vaud.
Switzerland.
The present volume differs in many important particulars from the
former, of the deficiencies of which Mr. Dixon makes so frank an
avowal. It has not only undergone a careful revision, but has received
additions to an extent which renders it almost a new work. Many of
there accessions are taken from extremely rare originals, and others are
here printed for the first time, including amongst the latter the ballad of
Earl Brand, a traditional lyric of great antiquity, long familiar to the
dales of the North of England; and the Death of Queen Jane, a relic of
more than ordinary intesest. Nearly forty songs, noted down from
recitation, or gathered from sources not generally accessible, have been
added to the former collection, illustrative, for the most part, of
historical events, country pastimes, and local customs. Not the least
suggestive feature in this department are the political songs it contains,
which have long outlived the occasions that gave them birth, and which
still retain their popularity, although their allusions are no longer
understood. Amongst this class of songs may be specially indicated
Jack and Tom, Joan's Ale was New, George Ridler's Oven, and The
Carrion Crow. The songs of a strictly rural character, having reference
to the occupations and intercourse of the people, possess an interest
which cannot be adequately measured by their poetical pretensions.
The very defects of art with which they are chargeable, constitute their
highest claim to consideration as authentic specimens of country lore.
The songs in praise of the dairy, or the plough; or in celebration of the
harvest-home, or the churn-supper; or descriptive of the pleasures of
the milk-maid, or the courtship in the farm-house; or those that give us
glimpses of the ways of life of the waggoner, the poacher, the
horse-dealer, and the boon companion of the road-side hostelrie, are no

less curious for their idiomatic and primitive forms of expression, than
for their pictures of rustic modes and manners.