2. the ballad

The balladChaucer reciting Troylus and Criseyde. Early 15th-century manuscript at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

1. Stylistic features

• “Folk” or “popular” tradition.

The ballad

• Short narrative song.

• Preserved and transmitted orally.

• Impersonal; narrator/singer rarely interferes.

• The “I” is one that represents a party or a community.

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It focuses on a single crucial episode or situation.

There were three gypsies tae oor hall door,

An’O but they sang bonnie O

They sang so sweet and too complete

That they stole the heart of our lady, O!

(from Gypsy Laddies)

2. Content

The ballad


There was a king and a noble kingA king of muckle(1) fame (1. great)And he had an only daughter dear,Lady Diamond was her name.

He had a servant, a kitchen boy,A lad of muckle scornAnd she loved him long and she loved him ayeTill the grass overgrew the corn.

(from Lady Diamond)

There is little description of setting

3. Setting

The ballad


9“O sister, sister let me live,And all that’s mine I’ll surely give”10“It’s your own true love that I’ll have and moreBut thou shalt never come ashore”.

(from Cruel Sister)

Dialogue is often used.

4. Narrative features

The ballad


Fair Lady Isabel sits in her bower sewingAye as the gowans(1) grow gay (1. Daisies)

There she heard an elf-knight blowing his hornThe first morning in May.

(from Lady Isabel and the Elf-knight)

Both fantastic creatures and human beings.

5. Characters

The ballad


1There lived a lady in the north sea shore Lay the bent (1) to the bonnie broom (2) (1. giunco) (2. ginestra)Two daughters were the babes she boreFa la la la la la la la la la2As one grew bright as in the sunLay the bent to the bonnie broomSo coal black grew the elder oneFa la la la la la la la la la

(from Cruel Sister)

The language is plain and formulaic.

6. Language

The ballad


Ah my Geordie will be hanged in a golden chain

‘Tis not the chain of many,

Stole sixteen of the King’s royal deer

And he sold them in Bohenny

(from Geordie)

Ballads deal with dramatic events.

7. Theme

The ballad


2. the ballad

Education