Chapter I: Preface

Not much more has been attempted in these pages than to extract the marrow of the Scottish Ballad Minstrelsy. They will have served their purpose if they help to awaken, or to renew, a relish for the contents of the Ballad Book. To know and love these grand old songs is its own exceeding great reward; and it is also, alas! almost the only means now left to us of knowing something concerning their nameless writers.

Questions involving literary or critical controversy as to the age and genuineness of the ballads have been, as far as possible, avoided in this popular presentation of their beauties and their qualities; and in case any challenge may be made of the origin or authenticity of the passages quoted, I may say that, in nearly every case, I have prudently, and of purpose, refrained from giving the authority for my text, and have taken that which best pleases my own ear or has clung most closely to my memory.

J. G.

_July 1896._

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I

BALLAD CHARACTERISTICS 9

CHAPTER II

BALLAD GROWTH AND BALLAD HISTORY 24

CHAPTER III

BALLAD STRUCTURE AND BALLAD STYLE 43

CHAPTER IV

THE MYTHOLOGICAL BALLAD 58

CHAPTER V

THE ROMANTIC BALLAD 83

CHAPTER VI

THE HISTORICAL BALLAD 108

CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION 128