The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Old English Ballads, by
George Wharton Edwards

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Title: The Book of Old English Ballads

Author: George Wharton Edwards

Commentator: Hamilton W. Mabie

Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9405]
Posting Date: August 3, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF OLD ENGLISH BALLADS ***

Produced by John B. Hare

A BOOK OF OLD ENGLISH BALLADS

With an Accompaniment of Decorative Drawings

By George Wharton Edwards

And an Introduction by Hamilton W. Mabie

[1896]

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chevy Chace

King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid

King Leir and his Three Daughters

Fair Rosamond

Phillida and Corydon

Fair Margaret and Sweet William

Annan Water

The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington

Barbara Allen's Cruelty

The Douglas Tragedy

Young Waters

Flodden Field

Helen of Kirkconnell

Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale

Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne

Robin Hood's Death and Burial

The Twa Corbies

Waly, Waly, Love be Bonny

The Nut-brown Maid

The Fause Lover

The Mermaid

The Battle of Otterburn

The Lament of the Border Widow

The Banks o' Yarrow

Hugh of Lincoln

Sir Patrick Spens

Introduction

Goethe, who saw so many things with such clearness of vision,
brought out the charm of the popular ballad for readers of a later
day in his remark that the value of these songs of the people is to
be found in the fact that their motives are drawn directly from
nature; and he added, that in the art of saying things compactly,
uneducated men have greater skill than those who are educated. It is
certainly true that no kind of verse is so completely out of the
atmosphere of modern writing as the popular ballad. No other form of
verse has, therefore, in so great a degree, the charm of freshness.
In material, treatment, and spirit, these bat lads are set in sharp
contrast with the poetry of the hour. They deal with historical
events or inciden