Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... ESSAY ON IMITATIONS OF THE ANCIENT BALLAD1 The invention of printing necessarily occasioned the downfall of the Order of Minstrels, already reduced to contempt by their own bad habits, by the disrepute attached to their profession, and by the laws calculated to repress their licence. When the Metrical Romances were very many of them in the hands of every one, the occupation of those who made their living by reciting them was in some degree abolished, and the minstrels either disappeared altogether, or sunk into mere musicians, whose utmost acquaintance with poetry was being able to sing a ballad. Perhaps old Anthony, who acquired, from the song which he accounted his masterpiece, the name of Anthony Now Now, was one of the last of this class in the capital; nor does the tenor of his poetry evince whether it was his own composition, or that of some other.2 1 [This essay was written in April 1830, and forms a continuation of the 'Remarks on Popular Poetry, ' printed in the first volume of the present series.--J. G. L.] 3 He might be supposed a contemporary of Henry mi., if the greeting which he pretends to have given to that monarch is of his own composition, and spoken in his own person. '" Good morrow to our noble king," quoth I; "Good morrow," quoth he to thou: And then be said to Anthony, "O Anthony, now, now, now."' VOL. IV. A But the taste for popular poetry did not decay with the class of men by whom it had been for some generations practised and preserved. Not only did the simple old ballads retain their ground, though circulated by the new art of printing, instead of being preserved by recitation; but in the Garlands, and similar collections for general sale, the authors aimed at a more ornamental and regular style of poetry..."