The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
than the axiom " the proper study of mankind
is man." Ballads have run wild so long that they
appear to be inextricably tangled, to have sapped
one another, to have lent and borrowed portions
from each other. Nevertheless, there is
always
the story or the situation at the centre which
suffices to distinguish them ;
and on this basis
of subject-matter a form of classification can be
attempted. Indeed, Child arranged the 305 in a
series, which, however liable to imperfections and
subject to alterations, on the whole represents
the presumed chronological order of the ballads.
Here again a warning must be put in : it is indeed
nearly impossible to make a generalisation
about dates or classes of ballads without immediately
qualifying it ;
and in considering either
we are continually driven to the limits of speculation.
I have, perhaps, already said enough
about the origins of ballads to show that, like
that of Jeames, their " buth is
wropt in a
mistry " but a
; just consideration of their
subject-matter, and that elusive quality their
style, affords us in most cases a hint of their age.
We have seen how the very word " ballad "
implies dancing, and we have considered theories
illustrating the probable evolution of the narrative
ballad from the dancing throng's ecstasies.
Let us begin by taking two primitive dancesongs,
in order to attune our minds to the proper
degree of receptivity. First, the hymn of the
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