e spoil of other men's love, and left but
lamentations to their lovers; that his music was not the harp, nor
lays of love, but the cries of people, and clashing of armour; and,
finally, that he died, not bewailed of many, but made many wail when
he died, that dearly bought his death.' Do not you think, Eudoxus,
that many of these praises might be applied to men of best deserts?
Yet, are they all yielded to a most notable traitor, and amongst some
of the Irish not smally accounted of."--_State of Ireland_. The same
concurrence of circumstances, so well pointed out by Spenser, as
dictating the topics of the Irish bards, tuned the border harps to the
praise of an outlawed Armstrong, or Murray.

[Footnote 60: The reward of the Welch bards, and perhaps of those upon
the border, was very similar. It was enacted by Howel Dha, that if
the king's bard played before a body of warriors, upon a predatory
excursion, be should receive, in recompence, the best cow which the
party carried off.--_Leges Walliae_, I. 1. cap. 19.]

For similar reasons, flowing from the state of society, the reader
must not expect to find, in the border ballads, refined sentiment,
and, far less, elegant expression; although the stile of such
compositions has, in modern hands, been found highly susceptible of
both. But passages might be pointed out, in which the rude minstrel
has melted in natural pathos, or risen into rude energy. Even
where these graces are totally wanting, the interest of the stories
themselves, and the curious picture of manners, which they frequently
present, authorise them to claim some respect from the public. But
it is not the editor's present intention to enter upon a history of
border poetry; a subject of great difficulty, and which the extent
of his information does not as yet permit him to engage in. He
will, therefore, now lay before the reader the plan of the present
publication; pointing out the authorities from which his materials are
derived and slightly noticing the nature of the different classes into
which he has arranged them.

The MINSTRELSY of the SCOTTISH BORDER contains Three Classes of Poems:

I. HISTORICAL BALLADS. II. ROMANTIC. III. IMITATIONS OF THESE
COMPOSITIONS BY MODERN AUTHORS.

The Historical Ballad relates events, which we either know actually
to have taken place, or which, at least, making due allowance for the
exaggerations of poetical tradition, we may readily conceive to have
had some f