Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England
Edited by Robert Bell
INTRODUCTION.
IN 1846, the Percy Society issued to its members a volume entitled
ANCIENT POEMS, BALLADS, AND SONGS OF THE PEASANTRY OF ENGLAND,
edited by Mr. James Henry Dixon. The sources drawn upon by Mr.
Dixon are intimated in the following extract from his preface:
He who, in travelling through the rural districts of England, has
made the road-side inn his resting-place, who has visited the lowly
dwellings of the villagers and yeomanry, and been present at their
feasts and festivals, must have observed that there are certain old
poems, ballads, and songs, which are favourites with the masses,
and have been said and sung from generation to generation.
This traditional, and, for the most part, unprinted literature, -
cherished in remote villages, resisting everywhere the invasion of
modern namby-pamby verse and jaunty melody, and possessing, in an
historical point of view, especial value as a faithful record of
the feeling, usages, and modes of life of the rural population, -
had been almost wholly passed over amongst the antiquarian revivals
which constitute one of the distinguishing features of the present
age. While attention was successfully drawn to other forms of our
early poetry, this peasant minstrelsy was scarcely touched, and
might be considered unexplored ground. There was great difficulty
in collecting materials which lay scattered so widely, and which
could be procured in their genuine simplicity only from the people
amongst whom they originated, and with whom they are as 'familiar
as household words.It was even still more difficult to find an
editor who combined genial literary taste with the local knowledge
of character, customs, and dialect, indispensable to the collation
of such reliques; and thus, although their national interest was
universally recognised, ...
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