process of oral transmission, purged of its sophisticated traits. This effect would in many cases be due to the purifying influence of the old tradition, which, remaining extant, would exist long after all printed perversions and broadside copies were forgotten. The possibility that a printed version of a ballad could become traditional supports the theory that the ballad is decayed minstrelsy, and the possibility of a ballad becoming popular by destination is supported by C. K. Sharpe's remark "that Buchan's version of 'Barbara Allen' was sung by the people of Allandale."[1]
The influence of a lyric on a ballad may be inferred from the influence of the lyric "Forsaken" and the song "Arthur's seat shall be my bed," on the ballad of "Jamie Douglas." Referring to some of the versions of the latter, Child wrote:
"A.-M. have all from one stanza to four of a beautiful song, known from the first quarter of the eighteenth century-, and printed fifty years earlier than any copy of the ballad. On the other hand the ballad may have influenced the song as in stanza eight."[2]
Perhaps it is due to the commingling of the ballad and lyric as above stated, that the lyric "Forsaken" seems to have influenced the version of the "Cruel Mother" recorded by Beattie in the Kinlock MSS. No other version except the latter has lines resembling the lyric inserted in it, and thus it must be inferred that wc have here a case in which there is direct literary influence on oral tradition.
Further instances might be gathered which illustrate the possible influence of written literature on the ballads, and of the ballads on written literature, but such instances do not permit one to draw definite conclusions as to whether the ballad is a decayed literary form retaining some of its former artistic traits, or a poetic form popular by origin gathering artistic qualities in the process of oral transmission. To draw such conclusions other lines of approach must be sought in reference to the study of the ballad.
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