On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    Stories . ' In fact , certain relatives congregate at Seaton Court , a variously gabled pile , and under certain lime-trees narrate the following histories : — 'The Sisters , ' 'Lucy Dawson , ' 'The Grange , ' ' Sceur Marguerite , ' and * Limenian Life . ' These are tender , touching stories * with , a tinge of real life and are told in a way to interest the emotional-reader .

    Untitled Article

    BALLADS : OLD AND NEW . Ancient Poems , Ballads , and Sotigs of ike Peasantry of E ? igland . Taken down from Oral Recitation , and Transcribed from Private Manuscripts , Rare Broadsides , and Scarce Publications . Edited by Robert Bell . ( Parker and Son ) . — When Mr . Bell first announced his " Annotated Edition of the English Poets , " he said that the collection would include " those stores of Lyrical -and Ballad Poetry in which our literature is richer than that of any other country , and which , independently of their poetical claims , are peculiarly interesting as illustrations of historical events and national customs . " In fulfilment ^ this , promise , we have already had a volume of "Early Ballads ;" . and the work before us still further carries out the design .

    From a not very clear Introduction ^ it would seem that the volume in -question is a reprint ( with considerable additions , subtractions , and emendajfions ) of Mr . James Henry Dixon ' s book bearing the same title , and published by the Percy Society in 1846 ; though whether the annotations in the present work are to be ascribed to Mr . Bell's pen , or to Mr . Dixon's , is left in doubt . But , however this may be , we have to thank the former gentleman for including in his series a very interesting and pleasant collection of the Poetry of the People . The value of these songs and ballads lies emphatically in the circumstance -of their origin being ( with a few exceptions ) from the hearts of the people themselves , and not from the brains , however ingenious or ennobled , of proiessed literary men . They are real growths of the national life—as much . so as the oaks that shadow our forests , or carry our thunders out to sea ; genuine productions of the soil , like the blackthorn in the hedges , or the 4 urf that brightens our fields with perennial verdure-. In these snatches of

    robust and vigorous song we see the heart of our old Saxon England laid bare see it in alLits native joviality and strength , its love of adventure , its muscular will , its tendency to alternate between rugged work and boisterous merriment , its stalwart self-reliance , and its broad substratum of conscience underlying its very prejudices . To read this collection is to feel an enlarged respect for our countrymen—to behold some of the unsquared rubble which has built up our national greatness . Energy exhaustless , humour fantastic . and warmly-tinted , a genial good-nature and quick generosity of sentiment for whieh we have not generally obtained credit , and a profuse outpouring of -animal spirits , commonly supposed to be the exclusive attribute of more southern lands , are among the prominent qualities which we find in these Poems of the Peasantry . And we rejoice to perceive that many of the songs are yet sung in roadside alehouses and in chimney-corners of old iarms . Educate the brain as much as you will ; but it is certain that no amount of culture should set aside the utterance of the affections , or

    supersede the native impulses of the heart-Lord Robert Cecil observed at a public meeting the other day that the genuine English peasant—more especially he of Sussex—has not his equal ii > r dull , brutish stupidity in all the world . We fear there is but too much warrant for the assertion ; yet it could hardly have been so always . The volume before us disproves it . Here are scores of songs—and they are only a selection—issuing out of the familiar daily life of the peasantry , and throbbing with that bright , though rough , vivacity which is in itself half an education . How is it that the character of tho people has changed ?—for ,

    although some of these lyrics are still occasionally sung , they are no longer produced . We think an answer is implied in the fact that there are no songs -of the Puritan party among the productions of the Commonwealth era . The Roundheads only " sang psalms to hornpipes . " We desire to speak of those men with respect , as they were noble politicians , and have left us a legacy of freedom ; but they and their religious successors , the Methodists , have done much to destroy the old genial life of England . While they ibrbade mirth , they did not advance education ; and the result has been that the English labourer has been reduced to the level of the Styrian boor . It is on . record that in former times a knowledge of music , and the ability to sin " it , even when it presented learned difficulties , were common in England ; ° and we see evidences of the fact in these national songs . Their lyrical instinct is indeed wonderful . The measures start out upon you with the sudden impulsiveness of birds , or like an air unexpectedly struck up t > eneath your window by a travelling organ . They may almost be said to sing their own tunes—to suggest their own music . For instance , what a < qnick and vital spurt of melody is this , supposed to be sung by a young girl in the pride of her youth and beauty IThere ' was an old man came over the Lea—Ha-ha-ha-ha 1 but I won ' t have he ! Ho came over tho Lea , A-courting to me , With his grey board newly shaven . Listen also to this lively catch of the days of Charles II : — Now , since we ' re mot , lot ' s morry , morry bo , In apito of nil our foes ; And ho that will not merry bo , We'll pull him by the noso . Cho . Lot him bo merry , morry there , While we ' re all morry , merry hero , J ? o * i who can know whore ho shall go , To . ha merry another , year't ¦ • • • • • Ho thot-vrill not morry , merry bo , With Ma sweetheart by hia side , Let ' him be > laid'in the cold churchyard , With a hoa ^ Btone-for hio brido . Let him , & <; .

    Here is a bit of robust politics and overflowing animal snirits TV * t it from a Harvest Home Song : — l " e take We cheated the parson , we'll cheat him again For why should the vicar have one in ten ? One in ten ! one in ten ! For why should , the vicar have one in ten ? For why should the vicar have one in ten ? For staying while dinner is cold and hot , And pudding and dumpling's burnt to pot ; Burnt to pot ! burnt to pot ! Till pudding and dumpling ' s burnt to pot , Burnt to pot ! burnt to pot ! There is a world of popular feeling in that reiterated question , " Why should the vicar have one in ten ? " and in the chuckle with which the singers recal the fact that they have cheated the reverend gentleman and affirm that they mean to do it again . As an instance of utter abandonment to lyrical feeling , even to the coining of gibberish , in order that the heavy trotting of a rough country horse may be represented in the metre , we quote the following : — Last New-Year ' s day , as I ' ve heerd say , Young Richard he mounted his dapple grey , And he trotted along to Taunton Dean , To court the parson ' s daughter , Jean . Dumble dum deary , dumble dum deary , Mumble dum deary , dumble dum dee . The varieties of measure are as remarkable for their number as their beauty . Sometimes the rhymes will be iterated and interweaved with marvellous prodigality ; as in this stanza from a poem about the plough :- — A country life is sweet ! In moderate cold and heat , To walk in the air , how pleasant and fair ! In every field of wheat , The faire 3 t of flowers adorning the bowers , And every meadow ' s brow ; To that I say , no courtier may Compare with they who clothe in grey , And follow the useful plow . This species of stanza appears to have been a favourite ; for tbere is a poem in Mr . Bell ' s collection , called " The Farmer ' s Son , " and two or three versions of a song in honour of the niilking-puil , which exhibit the same construction . For a similar exuberance of rhyming , and for a charming buoyancy of feeling and play of verse , we must refer to " The Kuval Dance about the May-Pole "—a true pastoral , neither coarse nor conventionally ideal . Considerations of space forbid our reproducing it here . The spirit of mirth sometimes becomes so fast and furious that it boils over into a kind of Bacchanal orgie . In the song , " Joan ' s Ale was Xew , '' which is supposed to contain an allusion to Oliver Cromwell and his wife , six jovial tradesmen sit down to drinking , and are joined by various mechanics and others : — The next that came in was a ragman , With his rag-bag over his shoulder ; Sure no one could be bolder Among the jovial crew . They sat and called for pots and glasses , Till they were all drunk as a . sses , And burnt the old ragman ' s bag to ashes , While Joan ' s ale was new . The excess of animal spirits is so great that beggary itself becomes something jolly and seductive—the true primal state of liberty : — There was a jovial beggar , He had a wooden leg , Lame from his cradle , And forced for to beg . And a begging wo will go , we'll go , we'll go ; And a begging wo will go ! I foar no plots against me , I live in open cell ; Then who would bo a king When beggars live so well ? And a begging wo will go , we'll go , we'll go ; And a begging wo will go ! To be able to drink lustily was one of the virtues of our ancestors . Iney carried that virtue too fur , no doubt ; but the excesses of robust men , wno neglected none of the ninnly exercises , and who at any rate drank uml ( P terated liquors , were something very diUurcut from the dull , sottish . b () 0 Z 1 " ° of the modrn town dweller , exhausted by in-door work and a ietiu atmosphere , and seeking n virulent stimulus in poisoned beer and gin . The songs in tho collection before ua are from all parts of JOi ^ lund—uohi the north to the south , from tho cast to tho west . They viuy '" ,, " ,,, degree with the soil from which they spring . Those from tl 10 soul (' parts of tho island have , wo think , more of rough joviality ; tho . se iroin North Countries "— -the old home of romance and minstrels } » i « ( IIS » imished , in many instances , by something of tho Troubadour # ; uco amorousness . Tho southern lovers aro n littlo boorish in their wooing , ao those of tho north . ,, r worth A few of tho ballads in this collection were , perhaps , linn" ) w printing : but , on the whole , the book is u delightful addition to Ilio ' , "'' ' shelve * , and wo bog to tlmnk Mr . Boll for this hall-crowns worth 01 With these lyrics of a past ago wo link a volume of modern bllll ( U J ? : ~ L Sonas of the Caoalien and Roundheads , Jacobite Ballads , £ <•• •)';<• ¦ { v' ; " . f W . Thornbury , Author of " ( Shnksporo ' a England , " fto . With I'l ^ f ^ by H . S . Marks . ( Hurat and 131 ackott . ) -On turning the t' ^ i ' !^ 01 work , wo find tho following dedications- — "To Douglns Jon-old , the "'"" j ^ Satirist , und Novelist , 'these Versos aro Dedicated by the Autnol . ^ one who ia atruggling , and hopes to win , to ono who has struggles , w *

    Untitled Article

    498 T Hi E LEADER , [ No . 374 , Batorpat .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 498, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2194/page/18/