THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 57 
not to be expected. The modern version of Chevy Chase, if less 
accurate than the older songs, is an admirable ballad. Every inci- 
dent of the day is fixed in the memory, never to be forgotten. 
The meeting of the armies, the death of Douglas, and the roll call 
after the battle, are described with much force. How gruesome is 
the picture of the scene after the fight : 
““ Next day did many widows come, 
Their husbands to bewail ; 
They washed their wounds in brinish tears, 
But all would not prevail. 
Their bodies bathed in purple blood 
They bore with them away ; 
They kissed them— dead— a thousand times, 
When they were clad in clay.” 
Of modern ballads Lenore by Burger is a masterpiece. Its 
reputation has long been world-wide ; and Germany prizes it as the 
ballad of ballads. The birth of the modern ballad in Germany 
dates from its production. Burger wrote this celebrated piece in 
1773, eight years after the publication of Percy’s Reliques. With a 
firm hand Burger has pictured the old heathen belief that love is 
stronger than death, inasmuch as even the rest of the dead may be 
broken by grief of the living. And with like skill he shows the sin- 
fulness of murmuring or despairing over the dealings of Providence 
with men. ‘The sources of Burger’s ballad, are “‘ Sweet William’s 
Ghost,” an ancient ballad given by Percy ; an old German 
volksheder, and a tale told him by a peasant girl—of a phantom 
trooper, who at midnight bore to his grave his disconsolate sweet- 
heart. These suggested Lenore to Burger, as Bandello’s novel 
suggested Romeo and Juliet to Shakespeare. In both cases out- 
lines of the story were to hand, but they were only the motive 
stimulating the master’s higher art, the crude elements to be trans- 
muted to gold in the alembic of the poet’s imagination. Dramatists, 
musicians and painters, have been attracted by this ballad, and have 
made their arts minister to illustrating its weird beauty. Sir Walter 
Scott translated it into English in 1795, and it was published the 
following year under the name of “William and Helen.”  Scott’s 
attention was drawn to the ballad by the chorus of the midnight ride, 
by which the flight of the spectral steed is made so realistic that it can 
be almost heard. Taylor’s translation of that stanza was repeated 
to Scott, who used nearly the same words in his version, informing 
