Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance
Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance
Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series
Book Excerpt
Sheale is known to have been a minstrel of Tamworth, and it would appear that much of this MS. (including certain poems, no doubt his own) is in his handwriting--probably the book belonged to him. But the supposition that he was author of the _Hunting of the Cheviot_, Child dismisses as 'preposterous in the extreme.'
The other version, far better known as _Chevy Chase_, is that of the Percy Folio, published in the _Reliques_, and among the Pepys, Douce, Roxburghe, and Bagford collections of ballads. For the sake of differentiation this may be called the broadside form of the ballad, as it forms a striking example of the impairment of a traditional ballad when re-written for the broadside press. Doubtless it is the one known and commented on by Addison in his famous papers (Nos. 70 and 74) in the _Spectator_ (1711), but it is not the one referred to by Sir Philip Sidney in his _Apologie_. Professor Child doubts if Sidney's ballad, 'being so evill apparelled in the dust and cobwebbes of that
Editor's choice
(view all)Popular books in Poetry, Music, Fiction and Literature
Readers reviews
0.0
LoginSign up
Be the first to review this book