Normans on the day of Hastings, and why good Bishop Aldhelm, when he
wanted to get the ears of his people, stood on the bridge and sang a
ballad! These old songs were the flowering of the imagination of
the people; they drew their life as directly from the general
experience, the common memory, the universal feelings, as did the
Greek dramas in those primitive times, when they were part of rustic
festivity and worship. The popular ballads have passed away with
the conditions which produced them. Modern poets have, in several
instances, written ballads of striking picturesqueness and power,
but as unlike the ballad of popular origin as the world of to-day is
unlike the world in which "Chevy Chase" was first sung. These
modern ballads are not necessarily better or worse than their
predecessors; but they are necessarily different. It is idle to
exalt the wild flower at the expense of the garden flower; each has
its fragrance, its beauty, its sentiment; and the world is wide!

In the selection of the ballads which appear in this volume, no
attempt has been made to follow a chronological order or to enforce a
rigid principle of selection of any kind. The aim has been to bring
within moderate compass a collection of these songs of the people
which should fairly represent the range, the descriptive felicity,
the dramatic power, and the genuine poetic feeling of a body of verse
which is still, it is to be feared, unfamiliar to a large number of
those to whom it would bring refreshment and delight.


HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE