Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/74

lxviii Ixviii INTRODUCTION, which springs from the feeling of a community and not from the sentiment of a poet ; while ballads like " Bonnie George Campbell " and " Three Ravens " show a note of the lyric ^ slowly detaching itself from pure narrative, just as " Lord Randal" and " Edward " lean to the dramatic. " Babylon," " The Twa Sisters," " Child Maurice," lead us back to a simpler tone of tragedy ; " Sweet William's Ghost " and " The Wife of Usher's Well " touch the supernatural world ; the tragedy of love or family relations, in the group which follows, is as direct as possible, yet not without the same suggestion of a fit reporter ; and at last we have the romantic ballad, of which " Young Beichan " is the homeliest and *' Childe Waters" the most admirable specimen. Wherever we turn, we find in these ballads something impersonal and communal which we recognize as their differentiating element ; and we also find the agency of a singer, a skilful recording secretary, one might say, who stands between us and the community, running withal the chances of oral transmission.^ Such are the sober facts in regard to the ballads of this collection ; but in admitting the agency of reporter ^ Steenstrup, Vore Folkeviser, p. 32, shows that in primitive ballads this lyric note was unknown. 2 From a count, for which the editor is indebted to Mr. B. Cadbury, late graduate student in Haverford College, of the ballads in the first seven parts of Professor Child's collection, it would seem that of 225 ballads, 113 are Scottish, 80 English, 2 from Shetland, and 30 with both English and Scottish versions ; that 148 are derived from popular tradition, 46 from historical tradition (actual, though distorted events), 9 from traditional history (fable accepted as history), 17 from romances and tales, and 5 from the Bible or sacred legends. Of ballads derived from popular tradition, 38 belong to the Robin Hood cycle ; and of those from historical tradition, 28 refer to warfare and raids of the Scottish border. There are 77 ballads which have counterparts in other languages or show inpdents cooQiQ^pn to continental ballads. Digitized by LjOOQIC