Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/69

Rh INTRODUCTION. bciii is mainly devoted to the demonstration of a total lack of connection between these and the old Scandinavian poems,^ does not take positive ground on the matter of authorship ; some of his investigations,* notably a fine chapter on the " I " in ballads, bear that way, and he is emphatic against all poetic individuality, and all lyrical elements ; but he nowhere approaches approval of Grimm's mystery.* However, be the vote of these two eminent scholars for or against the artist in the ballad, we feel that the outspoken opposition of Grundtvig, master in ballads, and of ten Brink, whose tact and judgment in general literature no one can call ^ See especially p. 322. 2 See pp. 32, n ff., 204. 3 We are concerned with Germanic criticism, but allow our- selves a glance at two men of note in Romance territory who seem to be separated from the camp of the Aufkldrer. Nigra in his admirable study, La Poesia Popolare Italiana^ prefixed to his Canti Popolari del Piemonte^ reverts to the analogy in the making of ballads and of language. " Ma la poesia popolare al pari della lingtta ^ una creazione spontanea essenzialmente etnica " (p. xviii) ; and again, (p. xxvii) : '* La canzone storica popolare. . . e anonima. Non h improvvisata da un poeta popolare [Bohme's leper ! ] piu o meno noto. ..." For such songs we assume " un periodo pik o meno iungo d*incubazioney al quale succede una continua elaborazione che si va perpetuando con fasi diverse, finch^ la canzone cada a poco a poco neir oblio, o sia fissata dalla scrittura." Again, it would seem that Gaston Paris is not with the majority. Hist Poitique de Charlemagney p. 2 : early popular poetry is " improvis^e et contemporaine des faits"; Romania^ XIIT, 617 : the songs are par ceux et pour ceux qui y avaient pris part " ; and in the same journal, p. 603, he doubts the existence of any professional minstrels among the primitive Germans, going on to say how "indications prove that later, and even among Anglo-Saxons, skill in composing and singing narrative songs was common with the majority of men, like skill in fighting or in settling matters of law {dire le droit).^^ It was the warriors of early time (Z^/V/. Poit. de Chart. y p. 11) Digitized by LjOOQIC
 * ' composes non seulement sous Timpression immediate des faits, mais
 * ' lesquels chantaient eux-memes les chants qu*ils avaient composes."