The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
ballads which contain legends and traditions
about the mighty ones of old. With some such
legendary ballads we have already dealt. King
Orfeo 1 is
perhaps the only survival we have of
what is obviously a classical tradition, but we
cannot stay to trace its course through the centuries,
and the possibility of an early confusion
or amalgamation of the classical story with an
2
ancient Celtic parallel.
At least it is possible to
say that we are now in a range of our ballads in
which we may expect to find kindred matter
amongst the earliest records of story-material.
Hind Horn* though a proper ballad, comes
straight from the romance of King Horn.
The relationship of Thomas Rymer with the
romance of Thomas of Ercildoune may be
much the same. We have a couple of mutilated
Arthurian ballads and a whole one, 4 but
these have had the fingers of a minstrel laid
upon them.
Sacred legends in ballads are not very common.
If they ever existed in any number, we may suppose
that the Church tried to suppress them, as
it diverted secular lyrics
to religious use. How-
1
See p. 35
a For a short study see my Sources and Analogues of A
Midsummer Night's Dream, pp. 4957.
3 First Series, 185.
* King Arthur and King Cornwall, The Marriage of Sir
Gaivaine, and The Boy and the Mantle (the two last in First
Series, 107 and 119).
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