Excerpt from Old Ballads The Introduction is an attempt to put before pupils in simple language an explanation of the fundamental difference between popular literature and the other kind. The teacher will easily be able to enlarge on the subject by suggesting parallels, from Homer to nursery rhymes. As to the ballads themselves, they are above all things intended to be learnt by bearti; and I suggest that their strong dramatic qualities enable them to be recited in dramatic form, with narrator or spokesman, and a number of characters according to the personae of each ballad. Some of the longer ones have been divided into parts; or, rather, I have indicated a few points here and there at which the ballad-dramatist drops his curtain with the phrase Let us now leave talking of so-and-so, and raises it again with Let us talk more of some one else. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.