found in the typical drawing-room or park of the fashionable world, nor in the sights and sounds of the town; it was no longer a synonym for reality reasonably conceived and reasonably depicted; nature was fields, woods, streams, mountains with men and women living amidst them as happily, peacefully and righteously as their ancestors in that legendary period of innocence which is called the Golden Age. Poetry was held

to be the expression of fancy and originality. Now, fancy and originality made themselves felt in these old ballads. So they were revived just in time and proved a great regenerative force in literature.

Of those ballads "Chevy Chase", which is printed in your Reader, had always been the favourite ballad of the common people of England. Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser's friend, speaks of it as follows: "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung by some blind harper with no rougher voice than rude style; which being so badly dressed in the dust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar." Indeed, Bishop Percy, who did not yet fully appreciate the charm of this old folk-poetry, often tried to "improve" the text in manuscript by changing freely according to the refined taste of the classicists. The Ballad of Chevy Chase was probably made by a Northumberland man under Henry VI. about the middle of the 15th century. The poem sums up in the description of a bloody battle and dreadful scene of death the feuds which then reigned in the families of English and Scotch nobles and produced unspeakable calamities to the country. It is written in the balladmeasure i. e. iambic tetrameters alternated with trimeters rhyming ab ab. I don't want to read the ballad with you; it is too long and its language often obsolete. You may read it in Herder's German rendering in his "Stimmen der Völker in Liedern", and then do a summary in your own words. Percy's book had led Herder to collect and translate the finest popular songs of the different nations and times. Its influence was first seen in Bürger's Lenore (1774), the first ballad in our literature, and then in Goethe's ballads, and later on in Brentano and Arnim's beautiful collection of popular songs known as "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" as well as in the two Grimm's collections of Fairy Tales. In England, Percy's Reliques led Sir

Walter Scott, whom you know as the author of Ivanhoe, to gather and edit the old ballads of the Scottish border.

Now I'll read to you the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens in Fontane's metrical translation:

The third ballad from Percy's collection which is contained in your English Authors, is that of "Edward". Here it is in Herder's translation: Dein Schwert, wie ist's vom Blut so rot? usw.

I am afraid you will not be able to read the original text, as it is written in the Scottish dialect. It sounds almost like this:

Quhy dois your brand sae drap wi' bluid, etc.

English peoble read the poem in an anglicised text, preserving a few words such as 'gang' for go and 'bairn' for children, which are generally understood in England. I'll read the version to you, I think you will find it perfectly intelligible:

'Why does your brand so drop with blood,

Edward, Edward?

Why does your brand so drop with blood,
And why so sad gang ye, O?'

'O I have killed my hawk so good,
Mother, mother;

OI have killed my hawk so good,

And I had no more but he, O.'

1) Aus Theodor Fontanes Gedichten 27-29. Tsd. J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart.

'Your hawk's blood was never so red,
Edward, Edward;

Your hawk's blood was never so red,
My dear son, I tell thee, O.'
'O I have killed my red-roan steed,
Mother, mother;

OI have killed my red-roan steed,

That once was so fair and free, O.'

'Your steed was old, and ye have got more;
Edward, Edward;

Your steed was old, and ye have got more;
Some other grief bear ye, O.'

'O I have killed my father dear,

Mother, mother;

OI have killed my father dear,
Alas, and woe is me, O!'

'And what penance will ye do for that, Edward, Edward?

What penance will ye do for that?

My dear son, now tell me, O.' 'I'll set my feet in yonder boat, Mother, mother;

I'll set my feet in yonder boat,

And I'll fare over the sea, O.'

'And what will ye do with your towers and your hall, Edward, Edward?

And what will ye do with your towers and your hall, That were so fair to see, O?'

'I'll let them stand till they down fall,

Mother, mother;

I'll let them stand till they down fall,

For here never more must I be, O.'

'And what will ye leave to your bairns and your wife, Edward, Edward?

And what will ye leave to your bairns and your wife, When ye gang oyer the sea, O?'

'The world's room: leth them beg through life.

Mother, mother;

The world's room: let them beg through life,

For them never more will I see, O.'

'And what will ye laeve to your own mother dear,
Edward, Edward?

And what will ye leave to your own mother dear,

My dear son, now tell me, O?'

"The curse of hell from me shall ye bear:

Mother, mother;

The curse of hell from me shall ye bear:
Such counsels ye gave me, O!'

2. Stunde: When did a reaction against the classicist school of poetry begin? - What did artists gradually feel? What had Young said about the sources of true poetry? — What great philosophical works proclaimed also that the essence of poetry was truth to nature? What book could thus make an epoch in literature, coming just at the time it did? — When did Bishop Percy publish his famous Reliques? Had he an idea of the importance of his work? - How do you know this? His preface sounds as if he apologized to the classicists for editing these barbarous rimes. What view of Percy's collection did the Dictator take? Why did the ballads take the public by storm? What qualities did people find in them? Nature What was the new watchword? was no longer reality portrayed by cold reason, what was it now found in? And what was poetry to express ? the old ballads revealed originality i. e. a fervid imagination and deep feeling, which stood in bold contrast to the artificiality of classicist poetry, they created a sensation everywhere. Where is the influence of Percy's book seen in German literature? Our book contains three fine specimens of the ballads collected by Bishop Percy. You had to write a summary of the Ballad of Chevy Chase. Read yours, X.

As

I. On a Monday morning Lord Percy, Duke of Northumberland and his archers are hunting in the Cheviot Hills. While looking at the disembowelling of the deer, they are told that Earl Douglas is fast approaching on his steed with his spearmen. To avoid the slaughter of hundreds of guiltless men Douglas offers to settle the quarrel about hunting in the Cheviots by engaging in single combat with Percy, but the latter's companions don't want to stand aside and look on.

II. The English bowmen begin the battle, the Scotch spearmen rush down upon them "giving many a wound full wide". Then the English pull out their swords and cut down "many a