The rise of the ballad in the eighteenth century . duction to the Minstrelsy and thinksthe note on Fairies is a shallow and unsatisfactory subject is so interesting that nothing can be al-together unattractive that treats of it. Scotts collection,Volume II, contains much that is valuable and ^ is one of the best poems. It has the levity andgrace of a genuine fairy fiction and at the same timethere is a tone of earnestness which suits a legend ofpopular belief. In Thomas the Rhymer, the enigmaticlines which speak of our national and distinctive characterand glory ought
The rise of the ballad in the eighteenth century . duction to the Minstrelsy and thinksthe note on Fairies is a shallow and unsatisfactory subject is so interesting that nothing can be al-together unattractive that treats of it. Scotts collection,Volume II, contains much that is valuable and ^ is one of the best poems. It has the levity andgrace of a genuine fairy fiction and at the same timethere is a tone of earnestness which suits a legend ofpopular belief. In Thomas the Rhymer, the enigmaticlines which speak of our national and distinctive characterand glory ought to become popular: The waters worship shall his raceLikewise the waves of the farthest they shall ride over ocean hempen bridles, and horse of tree.* There is nothing said of ballads, either in the way of allusions or discussion, in his letters. These references given would indicate a love of ballads due rather to the recitation of them in his childhood. The —0000— 1. p. 10, 11. Yol. p. 7, Vol. p. 342, 343. vol. -62- lines prgtAsed in Thomas the Khymer seem to have madetheir appeal to his patriotism instead of to his apprecia-tion of their literary value. The century ended with the Lyrical Ballads ofWordsworth and Coleridge, In the preface to^secondedition Wordsworth says, I hope the reader will permitme to caution him against a mode of false criticism wnichhas been applied to poetry in which the language closelyresembles that of life and nature. Such verses have beentriumphed over in parodies of which Dr. Johnsons stanzais a fair specimen:- •I put my hat upon my headAnd walked into the Strand,And there I met another manWhose hat was in his hand. Immediately under these lines let us place one of the most justly admired stanzas of the Bahes in the Woods. The pretty Dahes with hand in wandering up and down,But nevermore they saw the manApproaching from the tov/n. In both these stanzas the words, and the order of the words,in no resp
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttheses, bookyear1911
