Robin Hood And The Potter
Robin Hood And The Butcher



INTRODUCTION



When the learned first gave serious attention to popular ballads,
from the time of Percy to that of Scott, they laboured under
certain disabilities. The Comparative Method was scarcely
understood, and was little practised. Editors were content to
study the ballads of their own countryside, or, at most, of Great
Britain. Teutonic and Northern parallels to our ballads were then
adduced, as by Scott and Jamieson. It was later that the ballads
of Europe, from the Faroes to Modern Greece, were compared with our
own, with European Marchen, or children's tales, and with the
popular songs, dances, and traditions of classical and savage
peoples. The results of this more recent comparison may be briefly
stated. Poetry begins, as Aristotle says, in improvisation. Every
man is his own poet, and, in moments of stronge motion, expresses
himself in song. A typical example is the Song of Lamech in
Genesis--


"I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man to my hurt."