The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
realise that it is possible that the Russian Mary
Hamilton (who was herself one of the great
Scottish family) may have known the ballad It
!
is as though one were to open to-day's newspaper
and read that " a remarkable and pathetic romance
has been brought to light by the death of
a sailor named Enoch Arden," etc. But, to my
mind, the coincidence does not strike very deep.
" Mary Hamilton " was not the first demoiselle
in the world's history to become a king's mistress ;
we may well suppose that a ballad of The Unfortunate
Mother was in existence before 1563.
It is an essential part of the history of folktale
and folk-song, that local and topical
colours are thrust upon ancient wandering lays
to bring them up to date and maintain their
popularity.
Towards the end of our ballads comes a large
and important class in which England and Scotland
meet the Border Ballads. We are, indeed,
on the border in other senses, for fact seems to
mingle with fiction in many of them, and many
of them lie between the dramatic and the epic,
the single situation and the narrative of events.
Two of the finest, the gallant pair,
The Hunting
of the Cheviot and The Battle of Otterburn, 1 are
simply chronicles, and therein unlike anything
with which we have met so far. These belong to
1
Third Series, i and 16. This volume contains most of the
best "Border Ballads."
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