ine, and the very
canniball, do sing, and also say, their highest and holiest matters in
certain riming versicles.' Puttenham is here referring to that instinct
of primitive men, which compels them in all moments of high-wrought
feeling, and on all solemn occasions, to give utterance to a kind of
chant. {157a} Such a chant is the song of Lamech, when he had 'slain a
man to his wounding.' So in the Norse sagas, Grettir and Gunnar _sing_
when they have anything particular to say; and so in the Marchen--the
primitive fairy tales of all nations--scraps of verse are introduced
where emphasis is wanted. This craving for passionate expression takes a
more formal shape in the lays which, among all primitive peoples, as
among the modern Greeks to-day, {157b} are sung at betrothals, funerals,
and departures for distant lands. These songs have been collected in
Scotland by Scott and Motherwell; their Danish counterparts have been
translated by Mr. Prior. In Greece, M. Fauriel and Dr. Ulrichs; in
Provence, Damase Arbaud; in Italy, M. Nigra; in Servia, Talvj; in France,
Gerard de Nerval--have done for their separate countries what Scott did
for the Border. Professor Child, of Harvard, is publishing a beautiful
critical collection of English Volkslieder, with all known variants from
every country.

A comparison of the collections proves that among all European lands the
primitive 'versicles' of the people are identical in tone, form, and
incident. It is this kind of early expression of a people's
life--careless, abrupt, brief, as was necessitated by the fact that they
were sung to the accompaniment of the dance--that we call ballads. These
are distinctly, and in every sense, popular poems, and nothing can cause
greater confusion than to apply the same title, 'popular,' to early epic
poetry. Ballads are short; a long ballad, as Mr. Matthew Arnold has
said, creeps and halts. A true epic, on the other hand, is long, and its
tone is grand, noble, and sustained. Ballads are not artistic; while the
form of the epic, whether we take the hexameter or the rougher laisse of
the French chansons de geste, is full of conscious and admirable art.
Lastly, popular ballads deal with vague characters, acting and living in
vague places; while the characters of an epic are heroes of definite
station, _whose descendants are still in the land_, whose home is a
recognisable place, Ithaca, or Argos. Now, though these two kinds of
early poetry--