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 value of verse was recognized in the transmission of laws and records and the hard-won wealth of experience. Our own Anglo-Saxon ancestors, whose rhyme, it will be remembered, was initial rhyme, or alliteration, have bequeathed to our modern speech many such devices for "the knitting up of the memory," largely legal or popular phrases, as bed and board, to have and to hold, to give and to grant, time and tide, wind and wave, gold and gear; or proverbs, as, for example: When bale is highest, boon is nighest, better known to the present age under the still alliterative form: The darkest hour's before the dawn. But if we may trust the signs of poetic evolution in barbarous tribes to-day, if we may draw inferences from the sacred character attached to the Muses in the myths of all races, with the old Norsemen, for instance, Sagâ being the daughter of Odin, we may rest a reasonable confidence upon the theory that poetry, the world over, finds its first utterance at the bidding of the religious instinct and in connection with religious rites.