The influence of Thomson is clearly perceptible in these stanzas. "The Minstrel," like "The Seasons," abounds in insipid morality, the commonplaces of denunciation against luxury and ambition, and the praise of simplicity and innocence. The titles alone of Beattie's minor poems are enough to show in what school he was a scholar: "The Hermit," "Ode to Peace," "The Triumph of Melancholy," "Retirement," etc., etc. "The Minstrel" ran through four editions before the publication of its second book in 1774.
[1] Svend Grundtvig's great collection, "Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser," was published in five volumes in 1853-90.
[2] Francis James Child's "English and Scottish Popular Ballads," issued in ten parts in 1882-98 is one of the glories of American scholarship.
[3] _Cf._ The Tannhäuser legend and the Venusberg.
[5] It should never be forgotten that the ballad (derived from _ballare--to dance)_ was originally not a written poem, but a song and dance. Many of the old tunes are preserved. A number are given in Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," and in the appendix to Motherwell's "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern" (1827).
[6] "A Ballad." One theory explains these meaningless refrains as remembered fragments of older ballads.
[7] Reproduced by Rossetti and other moderns. See them parodied in Robert Buchanan's "Fleshly School of Poets":
"When seas do roar and skies do pour, Hard is the lot of the sailór Who scarcely, as he reels, can tell The sidelights from the binnacle."
[8] "I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung but by some blind crouder, with no rougher voice than rude style; which being so evil apparelled in the dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar!"
[12] I use this phrase without any polemic purpose. The question of origins is not here under discussion. Of course at some stage in the history of any ballad the poet, the individual artist, is present, though the precise ration of his agency to the communal element in the work is obscure. For an acute and learned view of this topic, see the Introduction to "Old English Ballads," by Professor Francis B. Gummere (Atheneum Press Series), Boston, 1894.