The man of an earlier period was as anxious for novelty as he is to-day. The only difference is this—at the present time novelties so crowd upon him that they become stale very rapidly. In the “golden age” people gave leisurely consideration to and digested that which was put before them. Hence it was held tenaciously in memory, and ballads and tales lost none of their interest.
The invention of printing wrought a great change in every direction, and when the press gave forth the ballad sheet it produced a new era in folk-singing. The ballad sheet is so inextricably mixed up with the folk-song that, for a clear understanding, it will be necessary to devote some pages to it later on.
It is a noteworthy fact that among our ballad literature we find numbers of stories that are practically the same in other languages and current in other countries. If we find, as we frequently do, a ballad common amongst Scandinavian folk that is also known in England, or perhaps Brittany, we cannot safely determine its original birthplace, for there can be no doubt that popular folk-tales and ballads travelled from one country to another in a very remarkable degree.
Scotland has always been famous for her wealth of dramatic ballads. No man can read unmoved the many fine ballad narratives that are published in her ballad books, and without wondering whence came the rich flow of fancy and poetic beauty that inspired them.
In spite of all that has been written, much regarding the Scottish ballads remains a mystery. The early collectors appear to have had little scruple in regard to the ballads being printed exactly as received.
One thing we have satisfaction in, namely, that ballads of this character did exist, and that emendation of phrase, or addition of verse, affects the matter, on the whole, very little. The consideration of the Scottish ballad is, however, outside our inquiry, although some narrative lyrics that are commonly thought to have had origin in Scotland are found among English folk-singers. Of these, “Lammikin,” collected by Miss Broadwood in Surrey, is a notable example, as also the different versions of “The Gipsy Laddie,” and one or two others that may be found in the Folk-Song Society’s Journals. Certainly the best-known narrative ballad among English folk-singers is “Lord Bateman,” and versions of this exist in the Scottish ballad collections. “Barbara Allan” is another that has a Scottish variant, while the “Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green” seems to be entirely English. “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,” “The Outlandish Knight,” “Geordie” are long ballads which, in a more or less fragmentary state, have been found in nearly every part of England.
One or two of the Robin Hood ballads have also been recovered from tradition, but such are, strangely enough, not common. All the tunes found united to the above-named narrative ballads appear to be ancient and contemporary with early versions of the words.