A BOOK OF OLD BALLADS

Selected and with an Introduction

by

BEVERLEY NICHOLS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The thanks and acknowledgments of the publishers are due tothe
following: to Messrs. B. Feldman & Co., 125 ShaftesburyAvenue, W.C. 2,
for "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"; to Mr. Rudyard Kipling andMessrs.
Methuen & Co. for "Mandalay" from Barrack RoomBallads; and to
the Executors of the late Oscar Wilde for "The Ballad of ReadingGaol."

"The Earl of Mar's Daughter", "The Wife of Usher's Well", "TheThree
Ravens", "Thomas the Rhymer", "Clerk Colvill", "Young Beichen","May
Collin", and "Hynd Horn" have been reprinted from Englishand
Scottish Ballads, edited by Mr. G. L. Kittredge and the lateMr. F.
J. Child, and published by the Houghton Mifflin Company.

The remainder of the ballads in this book, with the exceptionof "John
Brown's Body", are from Percy's Reliques, Volumes I andII.

FOREWORD
MANDALAY
THE FROLICKSOME DUKE
THE KNIGHT AND SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER
KING ESTMERE
KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY
BARBARA ALLEN'S CRUELTY
FAIR ROSAMOND
ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE
THE BOY AND THE MANTLE

The source of these ballads will be found in the Appendixat the end
of this book.

LIST OF COLOUR PLATES

KING ESTMERE
BARBARA ALLEN'S CRUELTY
FAIR ROSAMOND
THE BOY AND THE MANTLE

FOREWORD

By

Beverley Nichols

These poems are the very essence of the British spirit. Theyare, to
literature, what the bloom of the heather is to the Scot, andthe
smell of the sea to the Englishman. All that is beautiful in theold
word "patriotism" ... a word which, of late, has been twisted tosuch
ignoble purposes ... is latent in these gay and full-bloodedmeasures.

But it is not only for these reasons that they are so valuableto the
modern spirit. It is rather for their tonic qualities that theyshould
be prescribed in 1934. The post-war vintage of poetry is thethinnest
and the most watery that England has ever produced. But here, inthese
ballads, are great draughts of poetry which have lost none oftheir
sparkle and none of their bouquet.

It is worth while asking ourselves why this should be--whythese poems
should "keep", apparently for ever, when the average modern poemturns
sour overnight. And though all generalizations are dangerous Ibelieve
there is one which explains our problem, a very simple one....namely,
that the eyes of the old ballad-singers were turned outwards,while the
eyes of the modern lyric

...