The characters are often royalty. Child tried to exclude broadsides from his collection. Considered to be more recent than most of the Child ballads. Action as symbol. Verbs and nouns, few adjectives.
Description tends to be symbolic.
Must be easy to learn, to follow the story line. No leaps in story line or point of view. What is in common to the multiple versions and variants. Variants can include different tune families, variations on the same tunes, different character names, different twists to the plot, substitution of various conventional language, etc. Tune and text need a similar metrical structure.