Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/62

lvi Ivi INTRODUCTION. all this, rounds the poetry to a common standard, and excludes — at any rate, in our sense of the phrase, — all individual poets. So far in general terms ; but as for the mystery, the actual authorship of poetry of the people, Uhland takes that position of strategy defined by Hosea Biglow as " frontin' south by north." Although, he tells us, " a creation of the mind can never spring immediately from a multitude, although such a creation needs the act and the capacity of individuals, still, as opposed to that importance which rests in formal literature upon the personality, the peculiarities, or the mood of the poet, in poetry of the people there is decided preponderance of the mass over the individual. . . . That impulse, known to the individual man, to create a spiritual image of his life is active in whole races as such, as well as in individuals ; and it is no mere figure of speech that a race can be a poet.^ Precisely in such common production lies the idea of poetry of the people. True, this poetry can get utterance only through individuals ; but these have little personality, and are lost in the totality of the race." ^ There follow some excellent remarks upon the nature of oral transmis- sion and its workings upon the form and style of a ballad ; but we get no unequivocal words in regard to authorship. We hoped, from this man of sanity and balance, some stay for our feet, some happy compromise between the too ideal Grimm and the too literal Schlegel ; but what does Uhland really teach us ? Certainly no distinct notion about the making of a ballad. He rests too much in a phrase. He avoids the mystery in which Grimm took refuge ; but instead, he flies to images and allegory. He concedes the individual act in authorship, and then denies its significance. What, for example, in explaining the origin of popular song, are we to make of a community 1 " Volker dichten." a vil, 4. Digitized by LjOOQIC