Ballad Book | Page 6

A list of our principal ballad collections may be found of practical
convenience, as well as of literary interest. Passing by the Miscellanies,
Percy, as becomes one of the gallant lineage to which he set up a
somewhat doubtful claim, leads the van.
Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 1765.
Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. 1769.
Ritson's Ancient Popular Poetry. 1791.
Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads. 1792.
Ritson's Robin Hood. 1795.
Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 1802-1803.
Jamieson's Popular Ballads and Songs. 1806.
Finlay's Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads. 1808.
Sharpe's Ballad Book. 1824.
Maidment's North Countrie Garland. 1824.
Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads. 1827.
Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. 1827.
Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland. 1828.
Chambers' Scottish Ballads. 1829.

Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Ballads. 1845.
Child's English and Scottish Ballads. 1857-1858.
Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland. 1858.
Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs. 1868.
Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. 1868.
Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads (issued in parts). 1882-98.
A WORD WITH THE TEACHER.
The methods of ballad-work in the class-room must of course vary with
the amount of time at disposal, the extent of library privilege, and the
attainment of the students. Where the requisite books are at hand, it
may be found a profitable exercise to commit a ballad to each member
of the class, who shall hunt down the various English versions, and, as
far as his power reaches, the foreign equivalents. But specific topical
study can be put to advantage on the ballads themselves, the fifty
collected here furnishing abundant data for discussion and illustration
in regard to such subjects as the following:--
/ Teutonic.
Ballad Language | Dialectic.
\ Idiomatic.
/ / Description.
/ Ballad Stanza | Peculiar
Fitness.
| \ Variations.
|
Ballad Music | / Metre.
| Irregularities in | Accent.
| \ Rhyme.
\ Significance of
\ Irregularities.

/ Introduction.

/ Dramatic Element.
Ballad Structure | Involution of Plot.
\ Proportion of Element.
\ Conclusion.
/ Government.
Early English and Scottish | Family.
Life as reflected
in the | Employments.
Ballads | Pastimes.
\ Manners.
Early English and Scottish / Aspirations.
Character as reflected |
Principles.
in the Ballads \ Tastes.
Democracy in the Ballads.
Nature in the Ballads.
Color in the Ballads.
History and Science in the Ballads.
Manhood in the Ballads.
Womanhood in the Ballads.
Childhood in the Ballads.
Standards of Morality in the Ballads.
Religion in the Ballads / Pagan Element.