BALLAD

(It. ballat a.)' A species of narrative poetry, founded either in history or fiction, displaying the condition and the habits, the tastes and the sentiments of the various nations among whom it is found. The term Ballad is very indefinite in its general acceptation, including cla es of composition wholly different in themselves, of which the only common characteristics are brevity of metre and simplicity and perspicuity of style. The opinion entertained by Scblegel of the ballad is, that it is not an original species of composition; but that in general poems of this kind are to be found in the greatest abundance among nations po e ed of truly poetical feelings, whose legends, traditions, and national recollections have been interrupted or mutilated by long protracted civ^l wars, or by some universal revolution or concu ion of opinions. While some authors have a igned the ballad an Arabian, some an Armor i can origin, and others have claimed this distinction for the Normans and Provencials, Percy, Bouterweck, and Schlegel concur in awarding to it a Teutonic descent. Be this as it may, it is agreed that the Scand in avian nations delighted, at a very early period, to celebrate in song the deeds of heroes, lovers, knights, .; and the three great divisions of the Teutonic poetry of the middle ages — the stories of the Niebelungen, those of Charlemagne (particularly such as relate to his wars against the Arabians, and the bottle of Roncesvalles), and the tales of King Arthur's Round Table, consist of what at a later period were called Ballads. Tiiough the name Ballad is Italian, the spirit of chivalry had at no period during the middle ages much dominion or influence on the other side of the Alps; a circumstance that sufficiently accounts for the meagrene of the Italians in this department of poetry. The French too never attained any perfection in the ballad, as their fabliaux, legends, . soon degenerated into long prose romances,, which were quite destitute of the spirit of the ancient minstrelsy. The Spaniards, on the other hand, are rich in ballads of a highly chivalrous character. These, however, along with some Portuguese ballads Wliich bear infallible marks of a Spanish origin, may with more propriety be cla ified under the denomination of Romantic Poetry. Among the Welsh, even so early as the 12th century, music and this species of poetry seem to have attained a high degree of excellence; but the rutlile hand of Edward I., by his ma acre of the bards, doomed both the one and the other to an almost total annihilation. Of all the species of ballad, the Irish, among other characteristics, appears to be pre-eminently fitted for adaptation to music, as is witne ed in the universally admired " National Melodies " of Thomas Moore. While a variety of opinion exists among the learned as to the nature and requisites of the ballad, it Is admitted on all sides that England and Scotland have the honour of po e ing a collection of ballads superior to that of every other nation. There. [s. 131]