Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/42

xxxvi INTRODUCTION. author in the same list of believers with Grimm and Steinthal. Despite the coldness or open derision of other modern critics in regard to this matter of com- munal authorship, despite the distinct denial of F. Wolf,^ we cannot laugh out of court a case defended by two such advocates as Grundtvig and ten Brink ; and, at least, we must give it a hearing. In an opening editorial article, something hazy withal, Steinthal and Lazarus tell readers of their new journal ^ what they mean by this race, this "folk." The spirit of the race, presently to be set up as poet of our ballad, would seem to be a " monad " which at once penetrates and binds together the individuals, yet is really created and sustained by them.^ Not common descent, not com- mon language, make a " folk " ; it is the sense of unity in all the individuals. This unity, this spirit of the race, manifests itself first in speech, then in myth, then in religious rites, then in poetry, then in art, then in cus- tom ; after long tradition, custom gives birth to law.* In other words, poetry of the people is made by any given race through the same mysterious process which forms speech, cult, myth, custom, or law. Eight years later,* Steinthal grappled directly with the problem of authorship, and tried to set forth the doctrine that a whole race can make poems. The individual, he maintained, is the outcome of culture and long ages of development, while primitive races show simply an aggregate of men. Sensation, impulse, and sentiment 1 Wolf is as emphatic on the other side. Introduction to Warrens), p. xv; not "von einem nebu- olk genannt," but " von eihem dichtenden itional ballads. Sprachw.f I, 29. Digitized by LjOOQIC