REVIEWS ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 



history, it will only have to be transferred, in that respect^ to the same 

 niche with Chevy Chase, of which Percy says " although it has no 

 countenance from history, there is room to think it had originally 

 some foundation in fact." 



But another line of argument is next directed against the genuineness 

 or antiqu.ity of the Romantic Scottish Ballads, as follows : — 



" Their style is elegant, and free from coarsenesses, while yet ex- 

 hibiting a large measure of the ballad simplicity. In all literary gi'ace, 

 they are as superior to the generality of the homely traditionary 

 ballads of the rustic population, as the romances of Scott are superior 

 to a set of chap-books. Indeed, it might not be very unreasonable 

 to say that these ballads have done more to create a popularity for 

 Percy's Reliques than all the other contents of the book. There is a 

 community of character throughout all these poems, both as to forms 

 of expression and style of thought and feeling ; jealousy in husbands 

 of high rank, maternal tenderness, tragic despair, are prominent in 

 them, though not in them all. In several, there is the same kind of 

 obscure and confused reference to known events in Scottish history, 

 ■which editors have thought they saw in Sir Pairick Spence." 



So says Mr. Chambers, — as if all these assigned characteristics, em- 

 bracing some of the most universal materials of epic and dramatic 

 verse were peculiar to one lady in that one age ; — and then, after quoting 

 Toung Waters; JEdom o^ Goi'don ; Gilder oy ; Edward, Edward, &c., 

 at considerable length ; he concludes by producing in contrast to 

 these certain " typical ballads of the common class," with which to 

 compare them. But — with all respect for the writer's judgment and 

 experience, — the argument seems to us singularly illogical. Sir Pa- 

 trick Spence and Lo7'd Fyvie may be both genuine ancient ballads, and 

 yet the one may be of the 14th or 15th and the other of the 17th 

 century. If such be their diverse origins, we might as well compare 

 Barbour and Drummond of Hawthornden, for any good result it is 

 likely to lead to. The corruptions of later ages might greatly modify 

 both, and all in one direction, but the difference between them at the 

 last would still remain very wide. We have one beautiful little frag- 

 ment of a lyric preserved by Wintoun, and belonging undoubtedly to 

 the era immediately succeeding that of Alexander III, and to which 

 the supposed historical elements in Sir Patrick Spence iiave been 

 assumed by some to refer. What process of vulgarising or modern- 

 ising could give it any resemblance to such popular poems as Mr. 



