Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 12
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It was founded upon a consciousness of theircommon interests and ideas, resulted from a long and complicatedhistorical, social and economic experience. The art of story-telling hasbeen cultivated in all ages and among all nations of which we have anyrecord. By means of a story the savage philosopher accounted for hisown existence and for surrounding phenomena.The national peculiarities of the British people were formed due tomany factors, such as geographical, historical, social and economicaldevelopment. The main system of values, beliefs and traditions of Britishnations is mostly reflected in the ballads and fairy tales.Ballads are a fascinating subject of study. The term ballad (derived fromthe old French bailer, “to dance”) is the name applied over all Europeancountries to any simple, direct story told in simple verse. The term wasused in England in its present sense in the 18th century and described as alyrical narrative of varying length that have an exact metrical structureand a liberal use of rhyme.
These poems are among a group ofanonymous songs that were probably written between 1200 and 1700 inNorthern England and Scotland, although their origins are stillcontroversial.A ballad is a poem usually set to music; thus, it is a story told like asong. Any myth may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts orfairy tales in a verse form. The anonymous folk ballads were passedalong orally from a singer to a singer, from generation to generation, andfrom one region to another.
During this progression a particular balladwould undergo many changes in both words and tunes. The medieval orElizabethan ballads that appear in print later are probably only versions ofmany variant forms. Primarily based on an older legend or romance,ballads usually tell a dramatic story through dialogue and action, brieflyalluding to what has gone before and devoting little attention to depth ofcharacter, setting, or moral commentary. It uses simple language, aneconomy of words, dramatic contrasts, epithets, set phrases, andfrequently a stock refrain.
It usually has alternating four-stress lines47("ballad meter") and simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain. Forexample:“It was ín and abóut the Mártinmas tíme,When the gréen léaves were a fálling,That Sír John Gráeme, in the Wést Countrý,Fell in lóve with Bárbara Állan“Bonny Barbara Allan”During the Middle Ages ballads and short songs were very popular.Unfortunately many ballads composed by the Celts and Anglo-Saxonshave not survived, as only in the 18th century amateurs of English cultureturned to collecting and studying the national folklore. The only long epicto survive in entirety is The Song of Beowulf dating as early as the 8thcentury.
The poem is named after its brave and strong hero who foughtfor the good of the people killing two monsters. Another oldest recordedballads in the English language are Judas (the 13th century) andArthurian legends.Scholarly interest in the folk ballad was first aroused by Bishop Percywhose Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) was significantlyinspired by Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border(1802). Francis Child's collection English and Scottish PopularBallads (1882–98) presents a special interest as over 300 English andScottish folk ballads, dating from the 12th to the 16th century, wereincluded into this work.
Although the subject matter varies considerably,five major classes of the ballad can be distinguished—the historical, suchas “Otterburn” and “The Bonny Earl o' Moray”; the romantic, such as“Barbara Allan” and “The Douglas Tragedy”; the supernatural, suchas “The Wife of Usher's Well”; sea ballads, such as “Henry Martin”;and the deeds of folk heroes, such as the Robin Hood cycle. Ballads,however, cannot be confined to any period or place; similar subjectsappear in the ballads of other nations.
They were first of all songs sung tothe rhythmic movement of a dancing chorus and belong to the class ofproductions in verse known by the name of Folks-lieder.. In any case, theincidents of many thems, the poetic images, and even the dramaticmanner are frequently common to different countries. It is quiteremarkable that ballads, recorded from singers, separated by centuries intime and by hundreds of kilometers in distance, are both different and yetvery much recognizable. Some legends seem to be widespread, e.g. theimages of sleeping warriors under hollow hills, incorporating many localcharacters. There are five main classes of ballads:48(1) Ballads of the supernatural, including those of a ghostly character andthose based on a belief in fairies and fairyland.(2) Romantic ballads, dealing with the familiar events of life - of love,tragic death, etc.(3) Ballads of adventure.
Under this class come several of the Borderballads and those relating to Robin Hood.(4) Humorous ballads, usually the rendering into verse of some pointedpopular jest.(5) Nursery ballads, including lullabies.The ballad, even in later times, was sung as well as occasionally said.Some pieces were made up of prose in addition to verse; the dialogue andthe purely lyrical parts are in metre, while the narrative is mainly given inprose.
Examples of this are found both in English, Scottish and NormanFrench ballads which are supposed to be traced to the fourteenth centuryand are probably the earliest of surviving forms of this kind of folklore.The purely English ballads, though not lacking in spirit and humour, areoften commonplace in style. The simplicity of them has been ascribed bysome scientists to climatic influences. English scenery is comparativelyuninspiring; and hence, English popular verse lacks the imagination, thefire, and speed that distinguish the like productions in the North. Stillthere are exceptions. to this and there are a few early English ballads ofundoubted literary value.One remarkable feature of the old ballad consists in its half curious,half familiar treatment of the supernatural. There is exhibited a peculiarmysticism, sometimes weird, sometimes playful.In Clerk Saunders, Sir Roland, and in some ballads we have the samestriking presentation of the unseen.
Nothing can be more delightful thanthe pictures of Fairyland that we meet now and then in ballad poetry. InTamlane, and in the stories of Thomas the Rhymer and. theirScandinavian variants this is charmingly limned. We see its elfin beautyin the brightness of the queen of Fairy, in the "bonny road that windsabout the fernie brae," and in various other picturesque touches. Theseballads reflect in their solemnity and gaiety the imaginative beliefs of thepeople in that idyllic world of the minstrel.The ballads of a romantic kind are mostly concerned with strangeand touching incidents of love and war.
Pathos and joy are naturallydivided in the subject matter. At one time, as in Love Gregor, the bride issacrificed to the hate of a mother. But in Gay Gosshawk the wit of the49lovers overcomes every obstacle. Family feuds are frequently theoccasion of a telling episode, as in Barthram's Dirge, the ThreeRavens. The most prominent examples of ballads of adventure are theriding ballads of the Scottish border, and those telling about Robin Hood.There are brilliant passages in Jamie Telfer and Kinmont Willie, whichhave been characterized by some critics as Homeric in dramaticvividness. The humorous ballads of Scottish origin are often marked byclever and free play of fancy.With the printing press the minstrels disappeared, but their poetic formnevertheless was cultivated with success in later times.
The disuse of theolder dialect in Scotland has greatly hindered further accomplishment inthe art in that country, though W. Scott and Allan Cunninghamcomposed ballads of distinct merit in somewhat close imitation of theearly examples. In recent times ballads of a distinctively powerful kindhave been written by Coleridge, Rossetti, and poet Tennyson.The history of ballad-collecting is also worth describing.
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