Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/65

Rh INTRODUCTION. . lix mystery is concerned, was Sir Walter Scott ; in his eyes, the minstrel was quite sufficient to account for min- strelsy, whether of the border or elsewhere. Ballads, he remarks, often abridged from the romances, may be originally the work of minstrels "professing the joint arts of poetry and music," or they may be "the occa- sional effusions of some self-taught bard." ^ Motherwell,^ whom we have already quoted, tells of a custom which favors the artist in ballad-making. Scottish singers by profession, he says, preface, supplement, or interlard their ballads with prose, supplying omissions, or telling what became of the characters. Some pieces mix poetry and prose, like a Scandinavian saga ; and it is interesting to note that Scherer deems this to have been the primi- tive form of all epic' Crossing the channel again, and coming nearer to our own time, we find so great an authority as Miillenhoff, while agreeing with Grundtvig about the necessary conditions of popular poetry, taking definite stand — if his words are read aright — for indi- vidual authorship.* MiillenhofT's illustrious scholar and colleague, Scherer, devotes pages of his brilliant sketch of Jacob Grimm, and yet more of his Foetik^ to the support of Schlegel and the theory of artistry as the prime factor in early song as well as in early speech. Again, Professor Paul, who is no lover of Scherer's theo- ries, is one with him in the rejection of this famous mystery ; in times of oral tradition, explains Paul, poets composed a ballad, or what not, and sang it about the 1 Minstrelsy (1802), II, 102 ; I, c. — He notes (I, xcii) the account of Irish bards given by Spenser, and thinks an analogy could be found in "our ancient border poets." 2 Minstrelsy, Amer. ed., I, 19. 8 Poetik, 14 f. Digitized by LjOOQIC
 * Introduction to the Sagen, Lieder u. s. w., pp. xxvi and xxviii.