MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Popular Ballad

- Definition:
A ballad (from the late Latin and Italian ballare 'to dance') is,
fundamentally, a song that tells a story and it originally was a
musical accompaniment to a dance. One may distinguish between
folk, traditional ballads and literary ballads (e.g. Coleridges Rime
of the Ancient Mariner, Wildes Ballad of Reading Gaol)

A categorization of ballads according to dominant theme:

1. Ballads of domestic relations: deal with jealousy, revenge, rivalry, exile,
murder; e.g. Binnorie/ Two Sisters
2. Ballads of superstition: stories of fairies, ghosts and witches; e.g. The
Wife of Ushers Well
3. Ballads of love and death: true or false love, love testing, faithfulness,
and tragic fate or death of the lovers;
4. Humorous ballads: dealing with domestic quarrels; e.g. Get Up and Bar
the Door
5. Historical Ballads: mostly border ballads about the fights between the
Scots and the English; e.g. Chevy Chase
6. Ballads of outlawry: about Robin Hood and his men.
Basic characteristics common to large numbers of ballads:
(a) the beginning is often abrupt;
(b) the language is simple;
(c) the story is told through dialogue and action;
(d) the theme is often tragic (though there are a number of comic
ballads);
(e) usually there is a refrain.

To these features we may add:

- a ballad usually deals with a single episode;
- the events leading to the crisis are related swiftly;
- there is minimal detail of surroundings;
- there is a strong dramatic element;
- there is considerable intensity and immediacy in the narration;
- the narrator is often impersonal;
- there is frequently incremental repetition;
- the single line of action and the speed of the story preclude much
attempt at delineation of character
- imagery is sparse and simple.