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 of by composition:Schlegel of the but ballad that is,in "that general it is poems not an original of this kind species 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 civil wars, or by some universal levolution 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, Boutenveck, 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, •tt a very early period, to celebrate in song the deeds of hemes, lovers, knights, ttc.; and the three great divisions of the Teutonic poetry of the middle ages — the stories of the Niebeluneen, those of Charlemagne (particularly such as relate to his wars against the Arabians, and the battle of Roncesvalles). and the tales of Kins' Arthur's Round Table, consist of what at a later period were called Ballads. Though the name Ballad is Italian, the spiri* of chivaJr" US [s. 132]