The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
ever that may be, hardly any of the survivors in
this class are according to the canon Dives and,
;
Lazarus 1 is an exception. But, canonical or not,
they appear to have satisfied the popular imagination
so far as to maintain their course in oral
tradition side by side with the orthodox and
canonical Scriptures. Some, it would appear,
have gradually departed from narrative and become
converted into traditional songs. It is
curious that one of them is the earliest recorded
ballad that we have Judas 2 is preserved in a
manuscript of the thirteenth century and
another 3 has only been put on record since the
completion of Child's work. It is, however,
difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between
popular ballad and traditional carol, in
this class. The Maid and the Palmer* is the only
ballad surviving in England of the legends of
Christ's wanderings on the earth but
; another,
of " the owl and the baker's daughter," mentioned
by Ophelia, is a well-known story
in Scandinavia,
and has only disappeared from among us
since Shakespeare's day. Other sacred ballads,
such as The Carnal and The Crane, The Cherry-
Tree Carol, and the charming St. Stephen and
1
Second Series, 139.
2 Second Series, 145..
3 The Bitter Withy, first printed by me in Notes and Queries,
Tenth Series, iv., 84 (July, 1905).
4 Second Series, 152.
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