in speaking of certain 'thre worthi poyntis of wer,' omits the particulars of the thrid which fell into Esdaill,' being a victory gained by Schyr Johne the Soullis,' over Schyr Andrew Hardclay,' for this reason:

'I will nocht rehers the maner,
For wha sa likes thai may her,
Young wemen quhen thai will play,
Syng it amang thaim ilk day.'"

Another instance of the agglutinative process may be cited in the gradual growth of the Robin Hood ballads into a sort of epic, the first draught of which we may see in the Merrye Geste. The directness and dramatic cast of the minstrel ballad, however, form a strong argument in favour of the theory that they were largely taken from the older romances and chronicles, and the fragmentary appearance of some of them gives force to this view. Without preface, they go at once straight to the incident to be described. Frequently the ballad opens with a conversation, and some explanation of the position of the interlocutors was probably given by the minstrel as a prose introduction. Motherwell, in illustration of the opinion that the abrupt transitions of the ballads were filled up by the explanations of the minstrels, gives the following modern instance :

"Traces of such a custom still remain in the lowlands of Scotland among those who have stores of these songs upon their memory. Reciters frequently, when any part of the narrative appears incomplete, supply the defect in prose. . . . I have heard the ancient ballad of Young Beichan and Susan Pye dilated by a story-teller into a tale of very remarkable dimensions-a paragraph of prose, and then a

Motherwell's Minstrelsy, 1827, p. xlvii.

screed of rhyme, alternately given. From this ballad I may give a short specimen, after the fashion of the venerable authority from whom I quote: Well ye must know that in the Moor's castle there was a massymore, which is a dark, deep dungeon for keeping prisoners. It was twenty feet below the ground, and into this hole they closed poor Beichan. There he stood, night and day, up to his waist in puddle water; but night or day, it was all one to him, for no ae styme of light ever got in. So he lay there a long and weary while, and thinking on his heavy weird, he made a mournfu' sang to pass the time, and this was the sang that he made, and grat when he sang it, for he never thought of ever escaping from the massymore, or of seeing his ain country again :

'My hounds they all run masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.

Oh were I free as I hae been,

And my ship swimming once more on sea;
I'd turn my face to fair England,

And sail no more to a strange countrie.'

'Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susan Pye, who was accustomed to take a walk every morning in her garden, and as she was walking ae day she heard the sough o' Beichan's sang, coming, as it were, from below the ground,'" &c.*

The contrast between the construction of minstrel ballads and those of the ballad-mongers who arose as 1 class in the reign of Elizabeth is very marked. The ballad-singers who succeeded the minstrels were sufficiently wise not to reject the treasures of their predecessors, and many of the old songs were rewritten

Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xv.

and lengthened to suit their purpose. Sir Patrick Spence would perhaps be the best of the minstrel ballads to oppose to one of the best of the later ballads, such as the Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green; but as its authenticity has been disputed, it will be well to choose another, and Captaine Carre, which Ritson allows to have been one of the few minstrel ballads he acknowledges, will do well for the purpose. As both these poems are before our readers, it will only be necessary to quote the first stanzas of each. The version in the folio MS. of Captain Carre commences abruptly thus:

"ffaith maister, whither you will,
whereas you like the best,
unto the castle of Bitton's borrow,
and there to take your rest."*

This is a remarkable contrast to the opening of the Beggar's Daughter :

"Itt was a blind beggar, had long lost his sight,
He had a faire daughter of bewty most bright;
And many a gallant brave suiter had shee,

For none was soe comelye as pretty Bessee. "†

Some may think, however, that this ballad is an adaptation by the ballad-monger from an older original, so that perhaps a still better instance of the great change in form that the ballads underwent will be found in the Children in the Wood. This favourite ballad is one of the best specimens of that didactic style which is so natural in the hands of the master, but degenerates into such tedious twaddle when copied by the pupil. The first stanza is :

"Now ponder well, you parents deare,
These wordes, which I shall write;

* See below. D. 148. + Vol. ii. p. 172. 1 Vol. iii. bk. ii. art. 18.

A doleful story you shall heare,
In time brought forth to light.
A gentleman of good account
In Norfolke dwelt of late,
Who did in honour far surmount
Most men of his estate."

To put the matter simply, we may say that the writer of the old minstrel ballad expected an unhesitating belief for all his statements. 'If fifteen stalwart foresters are slain by one stout knight, single-handed, he never steps out of his way to prove the truth of such an achievement by appealing to the exploits of some other notable manslayer."* On the other hand the professional ballad-writer gives a reason for everything he states, and in consequence fills his work with redundancies. Percy understood the characteristics of the older ballads, and explained the difference between the two classes of ballads in his Essay on the Ancient Minstrels,† but unfortunately he did not bear the distinction in mind when he altered some of the ballads in the folio MS. So that we find it to have been his invariable practice to graft the prettinesses and redundancies of the later writers upon the simplicity of the earlier. For instance, in his version of Sir Cauline he inserts such well-worn saws as the following

"Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre:
This founde the ladye Cristabelle

In an untimely howre." I

Ritson also remarks upon the distinctive styles of the ancient and modern writers, but, as observed above, he had the bad taste to prefer the work of

Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xiii. + See below, p. 380.

See below, p. 70.

the later ballad-writer. His opinion is given in the following passage:-"These songs [of the minstrels] from their wild and licentious metre were incapable of any certain melody or air; they were chanted in a monotonous stile to the harp or other instrument, and both themselves and the performers banished by the introduction of ballad-singers without instruments, who sung printed pieces to fine and simple melodies, possibly of their own invention, most of which are known and admired at this day. The latter, owing to the smoothness of their language, and accuracy of their measure and rime, were thought to be more poetical than the old harp or instrument songs; and though critics may judge otherwise, the people at large were to decide, and did decide and in some respects, at least, not without justice, as will be evident from a comparison of the following specimens.

"The first is from the old Chevy Chase, a very popular minstrel ballad in the time of Queen Elizabeth:

"The Persé owt of Northombarlande,
And a vowe to God mayd he,' &c.*

How was it possible that this barbarous language, miserably chanted by some blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude stile,' should maintain its ground against such lines as the following, sung to a beautiful melody, which we know belongs to them ?

'When as king Henry rul'd the land,

The second of that name,

Besides the queen he dearly lov'd,

A fair and comely dame,' &c.†

The minstrels would seem to have gained little by such a contest. In short, they gave up the old Chevy

• See below, p. 23.

+ See vol. ii. p. 158.