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 FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

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World, the American sava)^ had their war-songs and rude poetry, in which they sun)f tjje praises of those who fouglit and died for their country. Garcilasso de la Vega savs, that in writing his History of Peru he availed himself of old sonjfs and ballads, which a princess of the race of their Incai taug:ht him to get hy heart in his infancy.

The ballad has no where l)een so completely naturalized as in Germany. The German hallads are not mere imitations of the rude songs and traditions of antiquity. They combine, in a wonderful degree, the polish and refinement peculiar to an advanced state of cinlizatiou, with the simplicity and nature of the older fragments of popuiiir tradition. Almost all the great poets of Germany have occasionally descended from the severer laboursof more elaborate composition, to the ddassement of ballad-writing; and the consequence is, that Germany, at this moment, is richer in this species of literature, than all the rest of Europe (Spain excepted) put together.

The earliest English song, separately printed upon a single sheet, is believed to be one upon the downfall of Thomas Ixird Cromwell, *. d. MtO. An ingenious Frenchman, M. Meusnier de Querlon, projected writing the history of his country hy a chronological series of songs and ballads.

Ritson says the number of our own anticnt printed songs and ballads which have perished most be considerable. Very few exist of an earher date than the reign of James, or even of Charles I. Being printed only on single sheets, which would fall chiefly into" the hands of the vulgar, who had no better method of preserving their favourite compositions than by pastingtheni

TD the wall, their destruction is easily account- for. The practice of collecting them into boob did not take place till after queen Eliza- l)eth's time.

In process of time, as manners refined, the ballad in every country by degrees included a wider range oi subjects : it wus no longer solely employed in rehearsing valorous deeds, but in- chided in its rhymes the marvellous tale or the vrild adventure, occasionally becoming the vehicle of sentiment and passion. And no festivity was esteemed complete among our ancestors in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries which »« not set off \%ith the exercise of the minstrel's talents, who usually sung his hallad to his own Of some other harp, and was every where received with respect.

As intellectual gratification advanced, however, Aeae rode performances gradually lost their tfbsction with the superior ranks in society.

'When language became refined,' says Dr. Aikm, 'and poetical taste elevated by an ac- Qoaintance with the Greek and Latin authors, th* subjects of the epic muse were no longer dresl in the homely garh of the popular ballad, but assumetl the borrowed ornament and stately »ir of heroic poetry, and every poetical attempt iathe sublime and beautiful cast was an imitation of the classic models. The native poetry of the wuntry was reserved merely for the humorous

and burlesque, and the term ballad was brought, by custom, to signify a comic story, told in low familiar language, and accompanied by a droll trinal tune. It was much used by the wits of the time as a vehicle for laughable ridicule and mirthful satire ; and a great variety of the most pleasing S])ecimens of this kind of writing is to be found in the witty era of English genius, which I take to be comprehended between the beginning of Charles II. 's reiffn and the times of Swift and Prior. Since that period, the genius of the age has chiefly been cuaracterized by the correct, elegant, and tender ; and a real or affected taste for beautiful simplicity has almost universally prevailed.'

In the further progress of literary ta.ste, these compositions came to be considere<l as objects of curiosity, on account of the insight they afforded into the manners and modes of thinkmg of re- mote times; while the strokes of nature with which they abounded, and the artless simplicity and strength of their language excited the ad- miration of liberal critics. Wlien, therefore, they had long censed to be current in popular song or recitation, they were carefully collected by poetical antiquaries, and elucidated by histo- rical notes ; and thus a secondary importance was attached to them scarcely inferior to that which they possessed when chanted to the barp of the minstrel.*

1421, June 12. Expenses of Joanna the queen dow ager, to master Laurens, is paid for aqua-vita; for the queen's use, two shillings and eightpence; to two .Serjeants, for pleading the matter of the queen's dower, six shillings and eightpence ; to John Perse, for divers medicine for the queen's body, twenty shillings ; fcr one oi)nce of red thread, one shilling and fivepence ; for making a gown, two shillings and sixpence.

1422, Aug. 31, Died at Vincenne, in France, King Henry V. and was buried in Westminster abbey. He was succeeded by his son Henry VI. who was only seven months old. It has been already statea that Henry V. had a taste for read- ing, and after his death several books which he had borrowed, were claimed by their owners. The countess of Westmoreland presented a peti- tion to the privy council, in 1424, representing, that the late king had borrowed a book from her, containing the Chronielet of Jerusalem, and the Expedition of Godfrey of Boulogne ; and praying that an order might he given, under the privy seal, for the restoration oi the said book. This order was granted with great formality. About the same time, John, the prior of Christ Church,

tional hallBdR, Percy's RetiifutM, Evans's Old Batladtt HfMtorical and Narratirt, and RitRon's Aniimt Songifrom the lime of Wmrjr ///., stand conspicuous. Pinkciton, Jamieson. and Pinlay have collected the ScottUh BalUtdM ; and Sir Walter Scott the particular Minstrrltj/ of the Scottish Border. Of those of other countries we cannot omit the Spanish ballads so frequently quoted by Percy. Among the antient ballads of the North, the AltdanUche Heldenlieder, Balladen and Marchen, Ubersctzt von WU- helm Carl t;rimm, 8vo., Heidelb., 1911. St. Ciesari and the monks of Hierea collected the remalnaand biographien of the minstrels of Provence; and the canon Manesse those of the Swabtan poets.
 * Among numerous other collecttons of oar own na-

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