THE BOOK OF SCOTTISH BALLADS; COLLECTED AND ILLUSTRATED WITH HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES. BY ALEX. WHITE LAW. BLACKIE AND SON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND WARWICK SQUARE LONDON. 25263.25 Merrie it is in halle to hear the Harpe, DAVIE, (circ. 1312.) い الى PREFACE. In the Spectator, IT may be considered remarkable, that it was not till English literature had reached its highest point of refinement-it was not till the days of Addison and Pope, or, still later, of Gray and Goldsmith-that the rude ballad poetry of the people became an object of interest to the learned. Addison first drew the attention of what was then called the 'polite world' to the merits of the ballad of Chevy-Chase; but he did so in the apologetic strain of one who was fully prepared for the said world being surprised at him taking under his protection any thing so vulgar, or even humble. introduces the ballad much in the manner that the fastidious yet generous Guy Mannering may be supposed to have introduced to his lettered friends the hearty borderer, Dandie Dinmont, with his spattered jack-boots and shaggy dreadnought :-there was no denying the rough and startling exte rior, but many He excellent qualities were to be found under it. Up to this time, the traditionary ballads of the country were held to be of so rude a character as to be scarcely amenable to the rules of literary criticism; no historical value seems to have been attached to them; and with the exception of plodding Pepys,* who, for his own gratification, stitched and preserved his Penny Garlands,' no endeavour was made to rescue them from the perishable breath of oral tradition, or the fragile security of the pedlar's broadside. Soon after Addison's day, a disposition to look after the floating some Vll made a collection of ballads in 5 vols., which is deposited in the Pepysian library, MagSamuel Pepys, the gossipping but delightful Diarist of the days of Charles II. and James dalen College, Cambridge. single square of paper: the more common way now is to print them in a small book-form of Before the beginning of the last century, ballads were usually printed on broadsides, or a four leaves, streets, they with title page. When intended for being held in the hand and sung through the are still printed on single slips of paper. poetry of the olden times began to manifest itself, and ALLAN RAMSAY has the honourable distinction of leading the way in this movement. His Evergreen, being a collection of Scots poems wrote by the ingenious before 1600," contains, as ballads, The Battle of Harlaw, Johnie Armstrong, and The Reidsquair Raid; and his Tea Table Miscellany,' published in 1724 and following years, contains, as ballads, Sweet William's Ghost, Bonnie Barbara Allau, The Bonnie Earl of Murray, and Johnie Faa. Some of these were obtained from tradition; others from the Bannatyne MS. in the Advocates' Library. In the same year as the above, or rather between the years 1723 and 1725, was published at London, in 3 volumes, 'A collection of Old Ballads, from the best and most ancient extant, with Introductions, Historical, Critical or Humorous.' This collection, with one exception, Gilderoy,' is wholly taken up with English ballads. It does not mention the sources from which they are drawn, and its Introductions are meagre. These collections were but the humble harbingers of Dr. Percy's great work, 'Reliques of Early English Poetry, consisting of old Heroic Ballads, Songs,' &c., the first edition of which was published in the year 1755. Until the appearance of this work, the ballad lore of Britain may be said to have been all but unknown and unexplored. The main source from which Dr. Percy derived his collection was a long narrow folio manuscript, in his own possession, which had been written about the middle of the previous century, but which contained compositions of various ages from before the times of Chaucer downwards. So little was the literary public prepared for the contents of the collection, that the existence or fidelity of the MS. was questioned, and the Editor denounced as a literary impostor. But the existence of the MS. was proved on the most undoubted authority, it being submitted to the inspection of Shenstone, Dr. Johnson,* and afterwards of those eminent commentators on * Dr. Johnson was a personal friend of Dr. Percy, and recommended the publication of the 'Reliques;' but, it is well known, he had a great contempt for ballad verses, protesting they n.ight be manufactured by the yard, without premeditation,-thus: 'I put my hat upon my head, And walked into the Strand, And there I met another man With his hat into his hand.' Or, The tender infant, meek and mild, The nurse took up the squalling child, But still the child squall'd on.' |
