English Literature for Boys and Girls by H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth) Marshall
page 122 of 806 (15%)
page 122 of 806 (15%)
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people helped to make the ballads. I do not mean that twenty or
thirty people sat down together and said, "Let us make a ballad." That would not have been possible. But, perhaps, one man heard a story and put it into verse. Another then heard it and added something to it. Still another and another heard, repeated, added to, or altered it in one way or another. Sometimes the story was made better by the process, sometimes it was spoiled. But who those men were who made and altered the ballads, we do not know. They were simply "the people." One whole group of ballads tells of the wonderful deeds of Robin Hood. Who Robin Hood was we do not certainly know, nor does it matter much. Legend has made him a man of gentle birth who had lost his lands and money, and who had fled to the woods as an outlaw. Stories gradually gathered round his name as they had gathered round the name of Arthur, and he came to be looked upon as the champion of the people against the Norman tyrants. Robin was a robber, but a robber as courtly as any knight. His enemies were the rich and great, his friends were the poor and oppressed. "For I never yet hurt any man That honest is and true; But those that give their minds to live Upon other men's due. I never hurt the husbandmen That used to till the ground; Nor spill their blood that range the wood |
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