The rise of the ballad in the eighteenth century . excite pity. For which reason the whole narra-tion has something in it very moving; notwithstanding theauthor of it (whoever he was) has delivered it in suchan abject a phrase and poorness of expression, that thequoting any part of it would look like a design of turn-ing it into ridicule. But though the language is mean,the thoughts, as I have before said, from one end to theother are natural; and therefore cannot fail to pleasethose who notwithstanding they are judges of language,have a true and unprejudiced taste or nature. The con-dition, s
The rise of the ballad in the eighteenth century . excite pity. For which reason the whole narra-tion has something in it very moving; notwithstanding theauthor of it (whoever he was) has delivered it in suchan abject a phrase and poorness of expression, that thequoting any part of it would look like a design of turn-ing it into ridicule. But though the language is mean,the thoughts, as I have before said, from one end to theother are natural; and therefore cannot fail to pleasethose who notwithstanding they are judges of language,have a true and unprejudiced taste or nature. The con-dition, speech, and behavior of the dying parents, withthe age, innocence, and distress of the children, areset rorth in such tender circumstances that it is im-possible for a reader of common humanity not to be affectedwith them. As for the circumstance of the robin-redbreast,it is indeed a little poetical ornament; and to show thegenuine of the author amidst all his simplicity, it isjust the same kind of fiction which one of the greatest —.—_-___—. -35- or the Latin poets has made use o± upon a paralleloooasion; I mean that passage in Horace where he describeshimself when he was a child, fallen asleep in a desertwood, and covered with leaves by the turtles that tookpity on him. I have heard that the late Lord Dorset ....hada numerous collection of old English ballads and took aparticular pleasure in the reading of thera. I can affirmthe same of Mr. Dryden; and know several of the most re-fined writers of our present age, who are of the samehumour. As for the little conceited wits of the age,who can only show their judgment by finding fault; theycannot be supposed to admire these productions whichhave nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature,when they do not know how to relish even those com-positions that with all the beauties of nature, have alsothe additional advantage of art. Spectator Number 179, for September twenty-fifth, has a slight reference to The Children
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttheses, bookyear1911
