is easy and flows along trippingly from the tongue with such regular
emphasis and cadence as to lead instinctively to a sort of sing-song in
the recital of it. Ballads are more frequently written in common metre
lines of eight and six syllables alternating. Such is the famous ballad
of "Chevy Chace,"[5] which has been growing in popular esteem for more
than three hundred years. Ben Jonson used to say he would rather have
been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his
discourse on poetry, says of it: "I never heard the old song of Percy
and Douglass that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet."
Addison wrote an elaborate review of it in the seventieth and
seventy-fourth numbers of the _Spectator_. He there demonstrates
that this old ballad has all the elements in it of the loftiest existing
epic. The moral is the same as that of the Iliad:


"God save the king and bless the land
In plenty, joy and peace
And grant henceforth that foul debate
Twixt noblemen may cease."


Addison, in Number 85 of the _Spectator_, also commends that
beautiful and touching ballad denominated "The Children in the Wood." He
observes, "This song is a plain, simple copy of nature, destitute of the
helps and ornaments of art. The tale of it is a pretty, tragical story
and pleases for no other reason than because it is a copy of nature." It
is known to every child as a nursery song or a pleasant story. A stanza
or two will reveal its pathos and rhythm. The children had been
committed by their dying parents to their uncle: