Ballad Book

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Title: Ballad Book
Author: Katherine Lee Bates (ed.)
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BALLAD BOOK
EDITED BY KATHARINE LEE BATES,
WELLESLEY COLLEGE.
"The plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago."
--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
PREFACE
Probably no teacher of English literature in our schools or colleges
would gainsay the statement that the chief aim of such instruction is to
awaken in the student a genuine love and enthusiasm for the higher
forms of prose, and more especially for poetry. For love is the surest
guarantee of extended and independent study, and we teachers are the
first to admit that the class-room is but the vestibule to
education. So
in beginning the critical study of English poetry it seems reasonable to
use as a starting-point the early ballads, belonging as they do to the
youth of our literature, to the youth of our English race, and hence
appealing with especial power to the youth of the human heart. Every
man of letters who still retains the boy-element in his nature--and most
men, Sir Philip Sidney tells us, are "children in the best things, till they
be cradled in their graves"--has a tenderness for these rough, frank,
spirited old poems, while the actual boy in years, or the actual girl,
rarely fails to respond to their charm. What Shakespeare knew, and
Scott loved, and Bossetti echoes, can hardly be beneath the admiration
of high school and university students. Rugged language, broken
metres, absurd plots, dubious morals, are impotent to destroy the vital
beauty that underlies all these. There is a philosophical propriety, too,

in beginning poetic study with ballad lore, for the ballad is the germ of
all poem varieties.
This volume attempts to present such a selection from the old ballads as
shall represent them fairly in their three main classes,--those derived
from superstition, whether fairy-lore, witch-lore, ghost-lore, or
demon-lore; those derived from tradition, Scotch and English; and
those derived from romance and from domestic life in general. The
Scottish ballads, because of their far superior poetic value, are found
here in greater number than the English. The notes state in each case
what version has been followed. The notes aim, moreover, to give such
facts of historical or bibliographical importance as may attach to each
ballad, with any indispensable explanation of outworn or dialectic
phrases, although here much is left to the mother-wit of the student.
It is hoped that this selection may meet a definite need in connection
with classes not so fortunate as to have access to a ballad library, and
that even where such access is procurable, it may prove a friendly
companion in the private study and the recitation-room.
KATHARINE LEE BATES.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE,
March, 1904.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BALLADS OF SUPERSTITION.
THE WEE WEE MAN

TAMLANE
TRUE THOMAS
THE ELFIN KNIGHT
LADY
ISOBEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
TOM THUMBE

KEMPION
ALISON GROSS
THE WIFE OF USHER'S
WELL
A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE
PROUD LADY MARGARET

THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE
THE DEMON LOVER

RIDDLES WISELY EXPOUNDED
BALLADS OF TRADITION.
SIR PATRICK SPENS
THE

BATTLE OF OTTERBURNE
THE HUNTING OF THE
CHEVIOT
EDOM O' GORDON
KINMONT WILLIE
KING
JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY
ROBIN HOOD
RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS
ROBIN HOOD
AND ALLIN A DALE
ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL
ROMANTIC AND DOMESTIC BALLADS.
ANNIE OF
LOCHROYAN
LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET
THE
BANKS O' YARROW
THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY
FINE
FLOWERS I' THE VALLEY
THE GAY GOSS-HAWK

YOUNG REDIN
WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET
YOUNG
BEICHAN
GILDEROY
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
THE
GARDENER
ETIN THE FORESTER
LAMKIN
HUGH OF
LINCOLN
FAIR ANNIE
THE LAIRD O' DRUM
LIZIE
LINDSAY
KATHARINE JANFARIE
GLENLOGIE
GET UP
AND BAR THE DOOR
THE LAWLANDS O' HOLLAND

THE TWA CORBIES
HELEN OF KIRCONNELL
WALY
WALY
LORD RONALD
EDWARD, EDWARD
INTRODUCTION
The development of poetry, the articulate life of man, is hidden in that
mist which overhangs the morning of history. Yet the indications are
that this art