INTRODUCTION.

BEFORE beginning to read the ballads contained in this book, it is necessary to understand quite clearly what a ballad in the strict sense of the word is; because the name has been applied, in one spelling or another, to many different things.

Derivation of the word Ballad. It is derived from a late Latin word ballare, to dance; and it will be very important to remember this original meaning. Thence the Latin ballatio, and its derivatives balada in Provençal, and balade in early French, mean 'a song intended as the accompaniment to a dance.' Then it came to mean simply a song; and to the Elizabethans ballates, ballades, etc., merely signified any simple sentimental or romantic song of the day, set to a tune regularly repeated for each verse. Moreover the name was applied to other forms of composition; what we call the 'Song of Songs' was called the 'Ballet of Ballets of Solomon' in the Bishops' Bible of 1568; and above all, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a ballad or ballet meant a popular topical song, sung in simple metre to a well-known tune, celebrating or attacking some famous or notorious person. The idea of song in the word ballad remained current till late in

the eighteenth century, and it was so used by such writers as Addison and Johnson. At the same time, however, the modern use of the word was beginning to come into existence; but it was usually necessary to qualify it with the adjective 'old.' 'The old ballads,' then, meant a number of songs, short, lively, written in verses usually of four lines each and in a simple metre, sung to popular tunes, and narrating a popular story. Many such songs it was the custom to publish as "broadsides'-single sheets of paper with the verses printed only on one side, so that they could be used (as they often were) for pasting on the walls of rooms. or houses. These broadsides were sold in the streets and in country towns and villages by professional singers and pedlars, who were accustomed first to advertise their ballads by singing them, and then to sell them for a penny per copy to the crowd they had attracted. But the term 'old ballads' today is not sufficient for students of literature, because it would imply the inclusion of all sorts of songs which at one time or another have been generally alluded to as 'ballads'; and therefore it is now customary to call them 'popular ballads' or 'traditional ballads.' So much for the history of the word. It is now necessary to learn exactly what is meant by a 'popular' or 'traditional' ballad.

Traditional Literature.-A baby learns a certain amount before it is able to read. As soon as it can talk, it reproduces words and phrases which it has heard spoken by others; and a little later stories are told to it from memory or are read to it out of a book. In other words, before the child acquires the power of reading for itself, its knowledge of language and its

acquaintance with literature are obtained by 'oral tradition'-that is, by having those words, phrases, stories, etc., handed on by word of mouth. Of the two physical methods of transmitting language-speaking and writing the child avails itself first of the oral method.

Now it is broadly true to say that the growth of the mind of a child resembles the growth of the mind of a people or nation. Those who are unable to read have the compensation of learning by heart, often more easily than those who can read; and this is true not only of primitive people in days before books were common, or before books existed at all, but also of illiterate people, such as are still to be found in many an English village. These people may be called ‘unlettered,' but they cannot be called ignorant; and if they possess knowledge and yet cannot read, whence and how has their knowledge come? Obviously from other people, by 'oral tradition'-as in the case of the child.

The word 'Popular.'-We have been speaking of the 'people' above, both those who are 'primitive' in history and those who are 'primitive' in their knowledge. A moment's thought will show that the English adjective 'popular' is derived from the Latin populus, people; and its true meaning is 'that which belongs to, or appeals to, the people'; the derivation thence of its modern sense of 'that which is a favourite with every one' can easily be followed. Nowadays, when one speaks of a 'popular person,' one is understood to mean a person who is everybody's hero and favourite, and a popular song' is the song which every one knows. But in speaking here of the 'popular ballad,'

the older meaning must be applied-we mean 'the ballads that belong to the people.'

Popular or Traditional Ballads. We can now translate this expression as follows:-'Simple narrative songs that belong to the people and are handed on by word of mouth.' But this definition demands further explanation.

In the first place, how can a song be said to 'belong to the people'? To understand this, we must go back in imagination to very early times, not forgetting that the word ballad contains the idea of dancing.

When people are gathered together to perform some labour, especially any piece of work where all must move together—for example, rowers at the oars of a galley, fishermen hauling in their nets, sailors round the capstan-bars, men reaping corn, women weaving at the loom or even spinning-it is natural and essentially human to accompany such rhythmic motions with the voice. When a mariner hauls on a rope, he says 'Heave-ho!' When one is in a swing, one is inclined to sing in time to the movement of the body. This innate desire, that the voice should accompany the moving limbs rhythmically, has always existed in the human race; and mankind gave vent to it in the earliest days, transferring to festivalsoriginally forms of worship derived from daily occupations-the song which accompanied those motions; hence came festal dance and song, intimately connected.

This is the beginning of rhythm, which is the parent of verse. Imagine a festival taking place in the childhood of the world; some community or clan are singing and dancing together joyously. Of what