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OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATUREThe 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 Sisters2. 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.
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