Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/84

Ixxviii IN TROD UC TION. action of the dancers was considerable, and the song itself as communal as possible in its character ; dialogue abounds,^ repetition is constant, variations are progressive, and the events are of the simplest kind. This song was of a cheerful cast ; but such ballads, it may be remarked, were not always of a bright and lively nature. One did not dance simply because one was merry, because one was bom under Beatrice's star ; but the slow and stately measure of a tragic ballad could time more solemn steps.^ The main point, however, is this prevailingly narrative character of the oldest ballads, and their inevitable connection with the dance. Even later narrative ballads, like those of Robin Hood, were more or less used by the dancers. True, because a dance bears the name of a ballad, we cannot conclude that the precise ballad which we now know by that name was always sung as accompaniment of the dance in question ; but when the author of the " Complaynt of Scotland " says that his shepherds danced "Robene hude, thom of lyn,* . . . ihonne ermistrangis dance," we see no reason why they 1 On dialogue in the Romance ballads, and its connection with the dance, see Jeanroy, Origines de la Poisie Lyrique en France, p. 393. ^ Dance and song were common at medieval funerals (see Bohme, Tanz, p. 10) ; and a pretty little song called the " Dans der Maechdekens," known in Flanders as late as 1840 and sung, on the occasion of a young girl's funeral, by the maidens of her parish, seems to be a distinct survival of the earliest choral dances at a funeral, — those pagan affairs against which the church made war. See Kalff, Het Lied in de Middeleeuwen, p. 522 ff. — For the Dance of Death, and all its extravagances, see Bohme, Tanz, p. 45 ff. •Not, however, our "Tam Lin." — As to Robin Hood, why should this ballad be shunted off as a " Chanson de Robin," a " merrie and extemporall song " } See Fumivairs Captain Cox, quoted in Complaynt of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. ixxxviii. Some further references for the connection of ballads and dance are Wolf, Lais, 233 ; Steenstrup, Vore Folkeviser, 8 f., 23 ff. ; and Schultz, Das kofische Lehen z. Zeit d. Minnesinger,^ I, 544 ff. Digitized by LjOOQiC