THOUGHTS ON THE TESTAMENT OF JOHN SCOTT HALDANE 



Strong preoccupation with the evanescence and sadness of life, and 

 the fundamental seriousness which makes folk-songs so beautiful as 

 well as so charming, we see the expression of the people's sufferings. 

 Even the apparently most individual theme of love is in no way- 

 immune from this, for whereas in its simplest forms it may involve 

 great torment, all this pain is enormously increased by adverse 

 economic and social conditions. Hence the ballads of violent action, 

 the songs of separation, and the fewness of the songs with happy 

 endings. It is in this light that we can recognise the essential rottenness 

 of a pseudo-folk book such as Mr. Weston s Good Wine^ for although 

 to the folk, the standing conventions of capitalist society, such as the 

 persecution of unmarried mothers, appeared as unalterable laws of 

 the universe; a sophisticated author well knows that they are nothing 

 of the kind, and yet in spite of that, fails to indicate their true nature. 

 There are many folk-songs about the kidnapping of lovers by tlie 

 pressgangs, but it would have been fantastic to accept this institution 

 as inevitable. 



Another point to which attention is not usually drawn is the 

 affection of the folk for outlaws such as Robin Hood or the innumer- 

 able highwaymen who appear in the songs. Whether real or legendary, 

 these figures are important indications of the psychology of expro- 

 priation on the part of the country working-man, and they exist 

 everywhere. Not only in England, but also in the Carpathians, does 

 Robin Hood, under the name of Janosik there, waylay the rich 

 knights to the joy of the Polish and Slovak mountaineers. Listen to 

 the verse from "The Robber": 



"I never robbed a poor man yet, 



Nor never was I in a tradesman's debt. 



But I robbed the lords and the ladies gay 

 And took the gold. 



And took the gold to my love straightway." 



The same psychology also appears in the way the folk took to 

 heart the biblical story of Dives and Lazarus, as shown in the famous 

 song "Lazarus and Diverus." 



Folk-song, like religion, is the sigh of the oppressed creature. The 

 disappearance of folk-song in the past was partly due to active sup- 

 pression. Alfred Williams, in his Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames,^ 



^ (London, 1923.) 



129 I 



