The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-12-22
EARLY ENGLISH BALLADS.
Lecture by Mrs: Abby Sage Richardson.


A large audience gathered at Congress Hall
last evening to listen to Mrs. Abby Sage
Richardson's lecture on English Ballads Of
the 10th and 18th Centuries"
The merry days of Robin Hood and Little
John seemed not SO far away; the grace, the
humor, the pathos of these old ballads seemed
touched with a new power as the speaker told,
in animated phrase, of the Knight of Sher-
wood forest or read now and then song or
ballad The lecture-going public generally
views with regret the reading of poetry by the
distinguished lecturer of the evening"" Mrs.
Richardson's reading, spirited and apprecia-
tive, of several ballads, would well justify an
audience in saying-"Thank you"
Ballads are the special property of children.
/ bless the good fortune which let the ballad of
Robin Hood fall into my hands when | was
sixteen or seventeen. How real were those
green woods. I seemed to see the oaks and
the merry men clad in Lincoln green. We are
grown too old for ballads. We can trace the
origin of the ballad to the time of William the
Conqueror; rhyme being then first employed.
One of the first of English ballads had for its
hero the Earl of Murcia the husband of Lady
Godiva. Robin Hood came in the reign of
Henry IL. suppose you do not care how
much of this is true but suppose 1t is true
that Robin Hood was of good blood. He was
an English nobleman though he wears TO our
eyes little of the appearance of the highway
man. He robbed the priests and the foreign
mobiles that he might give to the poor. No
man who came 10 him with empty purse or
stomach was sent away needy. The most de-
iighttui part of Ivanhoe to me is where Robin
Hood appears.
IL ls imL ossible to conjecture the name and
authorship of these old ballads. The collec-
ton OF Percy-the friend of Shenstone, Gar
rick, Gray, Johnson-is the best, and bis res
toration of lost lines skillful and sympathetic.
SHAKESPEARE doubtless heard these old songs
sung at assemblies aud wove them into his
plays, as The song of the grave digger in Ham
let, and many Others.
The ballad is the poetry of the common PEG.
pie, telling the homely song OF love and max
ing up by straightforward simplicity for lack
of elegance. We have no such singers now as
swarmed in the 10Th and 18th centuries when
words were so fresh and had not been used
over and again. 1t did seem then that all the
combinations had been exhausted. Our poets
nowadays could not write SO simply, so natur-
ally-the song seeming to sing itsef-as wrote
Thomas Nash on Spring as the Love Song of
Green-without being artificial.
Ben Jonson was heavy in tragedy but as
airy as the lghtest in lyric measure. Then
there are the songs of Shakspere, of Beau
mont and Fletcher, of Thomas Decker, which
are noble in sentiment as they are lovely
in rhythm, besides those of obscure poets who
been dramatic writers as we'll, and from Shaks- i
pere to Dryden the loveliest lyrics are found in
plays.
We now come to the pure song writers. We
have Surrey and Wyatt who introduced the
sonnet into England. If they had written but
one song we would still be poor in thanks.
Donne is put by DIR. johnson at the head Of
what he calls the metaphysical school of poets.
Though would not want TO take DIR. Jonn-
sons opinion OF poetry, yet II IN THIS case be
means by metaphysical" obscure and vague
should be inclined to agree with him.
There is George Herbert of pious memory. I'll 9
is the lyric poet who wrote only devotional and
religious poems, meddling not with love. He was
a cergsmen and lived life of real goodness.
Robert Herrick was . registering clergyman,
to whom his parish in Devonshire was unen-
durable. Yet no one can so write of Nature as
Herrick and his love verses are exquisite.
Thomas Carew, the fashionable poet, whose
songs were written to be set to music--a sort of
drawing room accompaniment. George
Withers, who wrote love songs under a sort of
protest,
IF she be not fair to me
What car Q !, how tair she be?
In less haughty strain are the lines OF poor
Richard Lovelace to his lady love. When in
London visited the shopwhere the the poet
died-a sad and lonely death-in the purlieus
of Fleet street.
The gay music of the Wrists was hushed at
the end of the 18th century. These early song
writer's do not impress me as very much in
earnest. Perhaps this may be their charm
like that of restful music which calls for neirh-
or words no tears They sang to red lip; to a
bright eye, etc. Argut the soul they said moth
ing.
They do not Cypress us with hidden meaning,
with obscure problems. They are bright, free,
joyous.