he common memory, the universal feelings, as did the
Greek dramas in those primitive times, when they were part of rustic
festivity and worship. The popular ballads have passed away with
the conditions which produced them. Modern poets have, in several
instances, written ballads of striking picturesqueness and power,
but as unlike the ballad of popular origin as the world of to-day is
unlike the world in which "Chevy Chase" was first sung. These
modern ballads are not necessarily better or worse than their
predecessors; but they are necessarily different. It is idle to
exalt the wild flower at the expense of the garden flower; each has
its fragrance, its beauty, its sentiment; and the world is wide!

In the selection of the ballads which appear in this volume, no
attempt has been made to follow a chronological order or to enforce a
rigid principle of selection of any kind. The aim has been to bring
within moderate compass a collection of these songs of the people
which should fairly represent the range, the descriptive felicity,
the dramatic power, and the genuine poetic feeling of a body of verse
which is still, it is to be feared, unfamiliar to a large number of
those to whom it would bring refreshment and delight.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

Chevy Chace

God prosper long our noble king,
Our liffes and safetyes all;
A woefull hunting once there did
In Chevy-Chace befall.

To drive the deere with hound and horne,
Erle Percy took his way;
The child may rue that is unborne
The hunting of that day.

The stout Erle of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summers days to take;

The cheefest harts in Chevy-Chace
To kill and beare away:
These tydings to Erle Douglas came,
In Scotland where he lay.

Who sent Erie Percy present word,
He wold prevent his sport;
The English Erle not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bow-men bold,
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well in time of neede
To ayme their shafts arright.

The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran,
To chase the fallow deere;
On Munday they began to hunt,
Ere day-light did appeare;

And long before high noone they had
An hundred fat buckes slaine;
Then having din'd, the drovyers went
To rouze the deare again