(iii) In the purely ‘Romantic’ class we may place The Braes of Yarrow, The Twa Brothers, The Outlyer Bold, Clyde’s Water, Katharine Jaffray, Lizie Lindsay, The Heir of Linne, and The Laird of Knottington.
(iv) There remain a lyrical ballad, The Gardener; a song, Waly, waly, gin love be bonny; and the nondescript Whummil Bore. The Appendix contains a ballad, The Jolly Juggler, which would have come more fittingly in the First Series, had I known of it in time.
In the general arrangement, however, the above classes have been mixed, in order that the reader may browse as he pleases.
[1.] Introduction (p. xvi) to English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited from the Collection of Francis James Child, by Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge, 1905. This admirable condensation of Child’s five volumes, issued since my Second Series, is enhanced by Professor Kittredge’s Introduction, the best possible substitute for the gap left in the larger book by the death of Child before the completion of his task.
I
A comparison of the first two ballads in this volume will show the latitude with which it is possible for an historical incident to be treated by tradition. The Battle of Otterburn was fought in 1388; but our two versions belong to the middle of the sixteenth century. The English Battle of Otterburn is the more faithful to history, and refers (35.2) to ‘the cronykle’ as authority. The Hunting of the Cheviot was in the repertory of Richard Sheale (see First Series, Introduction, xxvii), who ends his version in the regular manner traditional amongst minstrels. Also, we have the broadside Chevy Chase, which well illustrates the degradation of a ballad in the hands of the hack-writers; this may be seen in many collections of ballads.
Mary Hamilton has a very curious literary history. If, pendente lite, we may assume the facts to be as suggested, pp. 44-46, it illustrates admirably Professor Kittredge’s warning, quoted above, that ballads already in circulation may be adapted to the circumstances of a recent occurrence. But the incidents—betrayal, child-murder, and consequent execution—cannot have been uncommon in courts, at least in days of old; and it is quite probable that an early story was adapted, first to the incident of 1563, and again to the Russian story of 1718. Perhaps we may remark in passing that it is a pity that so repugnant a story should be attached to a ballad containing such beautiful stanzas as the last four.
Captain Car is an English ballad almost contemporary with the Scottish incident which it records; and, from the fact of its including a popular burden, we may presume it was adapted to the tune. Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, which records a piece of Scottish news of no importance whatever, has become an English nursery rhyme. In Jamie Douglas an historical fact has been interwoven with a beautiful lyric. Indeed, the chances of corruption and contamination are infinite.
II
The long pathetic ballad of Bewick and Grahame is a link between the romantic ballads and the ballads of the Border, Sir Hugh in the Grime’s Downfall connecting the Border ballads with the ‘historical’ ballads. The four splendid ‘Armstrong ballads’ also are mainly ‘historical,’ though Dick o’ the Cow requires further elucidation. Kinmont Willie is under suspicion of being the work of Sir Walter Scott, who alone of all ballad-editors, perhaps, could have compiled a ballad good enough to deceive posterity. We cannot doubt the excellence of Kinmont Willie; but it would be tedious, as well as unprofitable, to collect the hundred details of manner, choice of words, and expression, which discredit the authenticity of the ballad.