The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

762

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The Ballads of Scotland. Edited by William
FAlmondstoune Aytoun, D.C.L. Two Vols.
London : Illackwoods.

ONE of the most interesting chapters in the
history of our English Literature is to be found
in the manner in which it has been influenced by
Scotch talent and by Scottish associations.
Ilume's history was written under the impress
of strong Scottish prejudices; and some of its
blemishes are confessedly traceable to the natural
bias of its author, who saw political events through
the spectacles of a metaphysical Jacobite. Adam
Smith's " Wealth of Nations " produced a series
of financial revolutions, and the establishment of
the Edinburgh Review was the immediate pre-
cursor of great changes in the critical department
of Belles Lettres. But still greater effects re-
sulted from the songs of Burns, and the extra-
ordinary triumphs of Sir Walter Scott. While
the songs of Burns were still in their first fresh-
ness, Scott published his " Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border," and that work exercised much
influence on the reading public. Ile has himself
recorded, in his edition of 1830, that much of its

great success was to be attributed to the time of
its publication, when international feuds were
allayed, and the antipathies of the two countries
greatly subdued. That work was accepted as an
interesting sequel to " -•.- " and
the English '-
ballads •

I'ercy's Reliques,
anti- sentiments in some of the
Scottish . were overlooked. Various other
collections of Scottish ballads have been succes-
sively published by Jamieson, Finlay, Kinloch,
Maidment, Sharpe, and Motherwell, and now
Professor Aytoun comes with a collated edition
of the Scottish ballads, which has many distinctive
features investing it with special claims to notice.

This edition of the Scottish ballads is corn-
prised in two handsome pocket volumes, which
contain one hundred and thirty-nine ballads, to
which critical notes are appended. Their merit, in
an editorial point of view, is the great care with
which the task of comparing the various versions
has been performed by Professor Aytoun. He is
admirably qualified for the purpose of an editor
of Scottish ballads, as he unites the accom-
plishments of a philologist with the expe-
riences of a successful poet. He has another
advantage, also, in being so effective a reciter of
Scotch poetry, as some of our readers may have
perceived from his lectures at Willis's-rooms in
1853. We never heard Scotch poetry so well
recited by any one, and we can easily understand
that the ballads of his country must have a. great
charm for the learned Professor. His reasons for
engaging in the present publication are thus
given :
From my earliest years I have been familiar with the
traditionary poetry of my country ; and I cannot say with
truth that subsequent study, or an acquaintance with those
compositions which rank as classics, has in any way
lessened my admiration for those simple but impassioned
strains. They have become, to a certain extent, the first-
lings of my memory; and verses or snatches of them
occur to me more readily for illustration than lines of
Horace, which are commonly cited by Parliamentary
speakers, or even the epigrammatic and antithetical
couplets of the poets of the age of Queen Anne. Such
being the case, without arguing any point of tune which
might arise from that confession, I may at least plead
early familiarity with the subject as an excuse for my
present attempt ; and I may further add, that the idea of
collating and restoring, in so far as that was possible,
the scattered fragments of the Scottish ballad-poetry, in a
complete form, has long been present in my mind, and has
at various times, when leisure permitted, occupied much
of my attention. Before my attention was drawn to active
literary pursuits, almost all the floating minstrelsy which
time had spared had been collected by able, industrious,
and venerable hands—drawn front the great current, and
piled in separate heaps—but not, as it appeared to me,
properly assorted or arranged. I saw that a good deal of
this material was being quietly pilfered for the purposes
of transmogrification, and that various old favourities of
wine had been furbished, dressed up, and exhibited to the
public, with applause, as novelties ; and knowing well the
value of much that remained, I was not without apprehen-
sion that in the course of time the whole stock would be
absorbed, to reappear in modern glitter and resonance, just
as if • hidden treasure of unicorns, bonnetpieces, and
Jacobuses, were to be discovered by a sly appropriator,
and by him to be recast as medals bearing his own name
and legend. Such always must be the case in the absence
of a complete collection. Ido not presume to blame the
practice. The artist into whose hands an antique cameo
may fall, may undoubtedly take a hint from its tracery.
All I contend for is the preservation and collection of the
riginals.