Synopsis

The Old Ballads' suggests as distinct a set of impressions as the name of Shakspeare, Spenser, or Chaucer ; but on looking close we find ourselves puzzled ; the sharp bounding lines disappear the mountain chain so definite on the horizon is found to be a disunited and intricate region. Perhaps most people's notion of the Old Ballads is formed out of recollections of Percy's Reliques Ritson's Robin Hood set, Scott's Border Minstrelsy as re- positories ; of ' Sir Patrick Spens,' Clerk Saunders,'tions, dissertations, notes, appendices, commenta- ries, controversies, of an antiquarian, historical, or pseudo-historical nature, wherein the poetry is packed, like pots of dainties and wine-flasks in straw and sawdust. In most of the collections, lyrics and metrical tales are associated with the Ballads proper, and it has been usual, besides, to load on a heap of Modern Imitations. All honour and gratitude to the collectors and editors, greater and lesser ; (yet one must venture to say that the really