into the exquisite lyrical measures of Italy; while the mysteries and
miracle-plays, also of Continental impulse, were striving to do God
service by impressing the Scripture stories upon their rustic
audiences,--the ballads were being sung and told from Scottish loch to
English lowland, in hamlet and in hall. Heartily enjoyed in the
baronial castle, scandalously well known in the monastery, they were
dearest to the peasants.

"Lewd peple loven tales olde;
Swiche thinges can they wel report and holde."

The versions in which we possess such ballads to-day are comparatively
modern. Few can be dated further back than the reign of Elizabeth; the
language of some is that of the eighteenth century. But the number and
variety of these versions--the ballad of _Lord Ronald,_ for instance,
being given in fifteen forms by Professor Child in his monumental
edition of _The English and Scottish Popular Ballads;_ where "Lord
Ronald, my son," appears variously as "Lord Randal, my son," "Lord
Donald, my son," "King Henrie, my son," "Lairde Rowlande, my son,"
"Billy, my son," "Tiranti, my son," "my own pretty boy," "my bonnie
wee croodlin dow," "my little wee croudlin doo," "Willie doo, Willie
doo," "my wee wee croodlin doo doo"--are sure evidence of oral
transmission, and oral transmission is in itself evidence of
antiquity. Many of our ballads, moreover,--nearly a third of the
present collection, as the notes will show,--are akin to ancient
ballads of Continental Europe, or of Asia, or both, which set forth
the outlines of the same stories in something the same way.

It should be stated that there is another theory altogether as to the