Ballad Book

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Title: Ballad Book
Author: Katherine Lee Bates (ed.)
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7935]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on June 2, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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BALLAD BOOK
EDITED BY KATHARINE LEE BATES,
WELLESLEY COLLEGE.
"The plaintive numbers flow?For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago."
--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
PREFACE
Probably no teacher of English literature in our schools or colleges would gainsay the statement that the chief aim of such instruction is to awaken in the student a genuine love and enthusiasm for the higher forms of prose, and more especially for poetry. For love is the surest guarantee of extended and independent study, and we teachers are the first to admit that the class-room is but the vestibule to?education. So in beginning the critical study of English poetry it seems reasonable to use as a starting-point the early ballads, belonging as they do to the youth of our literature, to the youth of our English race, and hence appealing with especial power to the youth of the human heart. Every man of letters who still retains the boy-element in his nature--and most men, Sir Philip Sidney tells us, are "children in the best things, till they be cradled in their graves"--has a tenderness for these rough, frank, spirited old poems, while the actual boy in years, or the actual girl, rarely fails to respond to their charm. What Shakespeare knew, and Scott loved, and Bossetti echoes, can hardly be beneath the admiration of high school and university students. Rugged language, broken metres, absurd plots, dubious morals, are impotent to destroy the vital beauty that underlies all these. There is a philosophical propriety, too, in beginning poetic study with ballad lore, for the ballad is the germ of all poem varieties.
This volume attempts to present such a selection from the old ballads as shall represent them fairly in their three main classes,--those derived from superstition, whether fairy-lore, witch-lore, ghost-lore, or demon-lore; those derived from tradition, Scotch and English; and those derived from romance and from domestic life in general. The Scottish ballads, because of their far superior poetic value, are found here in greater number than the English. The notes state in each case what version has been followed. The notes aim, moreover, to give such facts of historical or bibliographical importance as may attach to each ballad, with any indispensable explanation of outworn or dialectic phrases, although here much is left to the mother-wit of the student.
It is hoped that this selection may meet a definite need in connection with classes not so fortunate as to have access to a ballad library, and that even where such access is procurable, it may prove a friendly companion in the private study and the recitation-room.
KATHARINE LEE BATES.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE,?March, 1904.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BALLADS OF SUPERSTITION.?THE WEE WEE MAN?TAMLANE?TRUE THOMAS?THE ELFIN KNIGHT?LADY ISOBEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT?TOM THUMBE?KEMPION?ALISON GROSS?THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL?A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE?PROUD LADY MARGARET?THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE?THE DEMON LOVER?RIDDLES WISELY EXPOUNDED
BALLADS OF TRADITION.?SIR PATRICK SPENS?THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURNE?THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT?EDOM O' GORDON?KINMONT WILLIE?KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY?ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS?ROBIN HOOD AND ALLIN A DALE?ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL
ROMANTIC AND DOMESTIC BALLADS.?ANNIE OF LOCHROYAN?LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET?THE BANKS O' YARROW?THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY?FINE FLOWERS I' THE VALLEY?THE GAY GOSS-HAWK?YOUNG REDIN?WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET?YOUNG BEICHAN?GILDEROY?BONNY BARBARA ALLAN?THE GARDENER?ETIN THE FORESTER?LAMKIN?HUGH OF LINCOLN?FAIR ANNIE?THE LAIRD O' DRUM?LIZIE LINDSAY?KATHARINE JANFARIE?GLENLOGIE?GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR?THE LAWLANDS O' HOLLAND?THE TWA CORBIES?HELEN OF KIRCONNELL?WALY WALY?LORD RONALD?EDWARD, EDWARD
INTRODUCTION
The development of poetry, the articulate life of man, is hidden in that mist which overhangs the morning of history. Yet the indications are that this art of arts had its origin, as far back as the days of savagery, in the ideal element of life rather than the utilitarian. There came a time, undoubtedly, when the mnemonic