reared on falsehood and imposition, and expose their authors to the contempt and derision of that public whose credulity and confidence they have abused.

When we look around us and find so voluminous a body of vernacular poetry traditionally preserved among the patriotic children of an ancient and heroic race, for a period of time to which imagination can assign no definite limits, but whose origin seems as remote, and involved in as much darkness, as the early history of the people themselves-a body of poetry, breathing at one time of "high erected thoughts seated in a heart of courtesie," and at another, overflowing with pathos and tenderest feeling; at one time swelling into all the pomp of chivalric circumstance, and full of unmingled joy and triumph; at another moment narrowing itself into the intense interest of the deepest tragedy;—a series of compositions, terse and unlaboured, but supplying in their details satisfactory and striking illustrations of the manners, habits, feelings, superstitions, and prejudices of days deep hidden in the gloom of hoar antiquity, and whose peculiarities of style so completely distinguish them from those productions of more recent times which embrace a similar range of topics: and when we find this curious and interesting species of national literature transmitted even to the present day, with a copiousness and fidelity almost rivalling the certainty and authenticity of written monuments, we are naturally led to inquire, not only into the causes which have so linked it with the affections of each succeeding race, but our attention is also directed to the

times which first cherished so remarkable a class of compositions, and to the poets by whom it was produced. Ample though such a field of inquiry be, it nevertheless is one wherein little progress can be made with any degree of historical certainty; and, in an investigation whose object is professed to be the elucidation of truth, it would be idle to substitute conjecture for facts.

To point out what truly are the most ancient of these compositions cannot be attempted with any success. Though tradition may faithfully transmit to us the narrative uninjured and unshorn of any part of its circumstance-nay, even give the sentiments of the poet unaltered, and preserve the character of the piece precisely as at first portrayed, yet it alters the language so completely, that not a word may be preserved which originally was there. The phraseology of one age, as it becomes obsolete and strange, is in oral literature ever supplanted by equivalent terms which are better understood, or are in daily use; and these again, in their turn, at some future period, yield to the same inexorable law of perpetual mutation. Thus the distinguishing features of different ages, so far as these are indicated by language, become so thoroughly blended, that to fix the antiquity of traditionary song by any evidence which its diction supplies, is a hopeless, and, at best, an unsatisfactory endeavour.

"There are in Scotland," says Ritson, "many ballads, or legendary and romantic songs, composed in a singular style, and preserved by tradition among the country people. It must, however, be confessed that none of these compositions

bear satisfactory marks of the antiquity they pretend to, while the expressions or allusions occurring in some would seem to fix their origin to a very modern date."* The opinions of a writer of so much acuteness and information in poetic archæology as Ritson, however hastily and inconsiderately delivered, are deserving of attention; but in this quotation it is to be observed that he only refers to the "expressions and allusions" interspersed through the ballads he had an opportunity of studying, not to their general structure, and to those commonplaces and curious. burdens they frequently have, which serve as landmarks and helps to the memory of the reciter, while they secure the stream of the narrative from being broken or interrupted by the innovations of time, and the mutations of language. It is granted at once that the "expressions and allusions" of these compositions fluctuate, and that frequently; but these changes never alter entirely the venerable aspect of the whole ballad. It is like repairing gradually the weatherworn face of an ancient cathedral by the insertion here and there of a freshly-hewn stone, as need may require. The outline of the building and the effect of the whole remain unchanged. Though the comparatively modern look of ballad phraseology, so far as dependent on certain allusions and expressions, is admitted to greater latitude than what is truly the fact, it is well known to those acquainted with the subject, that they still retain many "aureat termes," struck in the mint of the olden time, amply sufficient to vouch for

* Historical Essay prefixed to "Scottish Song," Lond. 1794, p. lxxx.

their remote extraction and gentle blood, even were there no other evidence at hand of a less questionable and suspicious kind. That evidence is contained in the bosom of the ballads themselves. They enjoy peculiar features, which not only distinguish them from the like sort of compositions produced in more recent times, but certain characteristics which separate them from the written poetry of their own day, and identify them with each other as belonging to one body and family of national minstrelsy. These features, it will be found, are common also to the early traditionary poetry of the Scandinavian provinces of Europe; and constitute, in fact, the boundary line which exists between what is the oral and what is the written poetry of a people, or of that poetry which is equally intelligible to the unlettered as to the learned. We shall endeavour partially to sketch some of these distinctive and unalterable features of the ancient traditionary ballad of Scotland, although we feel that to do complete justice to the subject is neither in our power, nor is it compatible with the limits of this essay. Besides, there grows up an intuitive and auxiliary sense in all who are familiar with this study, which enables them at once, without any laboured process of induction or critical analysis, to discriminate between what is ancient and what is modern, or the imitation of the ancient; but this kind of intuitive perception cannot be communicated by words to another; and it is now merely mentioned to obviate any appearance of dogmatism, if, in the course of our observations, we should at any time call this old or that new, this genuine or that a forgery, without condescending

to detail the grounds upon which such brief censures are founded.

The first thing that solicits our notice in the romantic ballad is the almost uniform dramatic cast of its structure. The action of the piece commences at once. It does not, like the metrical romance, proceed after craving the attention of lord and lady, and invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary, &c., to give a sketch of the parentage, education, and promising qualities of the doughty knight or gentle squire who is to figure in it. There is no pompous announcement of the exquisite enjoyment to be derived from the carping of such noble gestes. If such particulars are at all alluded to, they are noticed merely incidentally, and dashed off perhaps in a single line. The characters and the destinies of those who form the subject of such tales are learned from their actions, not by the description of the poet. They generally open with some striking and natural picture, pregnant with life and motion.

The

story runs on in an arrowlike stream, with all the straightforwardness of unfeigned and earnest passion. There is no turning back to mend what has been said amiss, to render more clear that which may have been dimly expressed, or slightly hinted; and there is no pause made to gather on the way beautiful images or appropriate illustrations. If these come naturally and unavoidably as it were, good and well, but there is no loitering and winding about and about as if unwilling to move on till these should suggest themselves. The charm of the composition lies in the story which it evolves. Strained and artificial feeling has no place in it, and rhetorical embellishments

B