separator of 5 widely spaced asterisks such as follow these notes. * * * * * THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS [Illustration] THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS EDITED BY FRANCIS JAMES CHILD IN FIVE VOLUMES VOLUME I NEW YORK DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. This Dover edition, first published in 1965, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, as follows: Vol. I--Part I, 1882; Part II, 1884 Vol. II--Part III, 1885; Part IV, 1886 Vol. III--Part V, 1888; Part VI, 1889 Vol. IV--Part VII, 1890; Part VIII, 1892 Vol. V--Part IX, 1894; Part X, 1898. This edition also contains as an appendix to Part X an essay by Walter Morris Hart entitled "Professor Child and the Ballad," reprinted _in toto_ from Vol. XXI, No. 4, 1906 [New Series Vol. XIV, No. 4] of the _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_. _Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-24347_ Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York, N.Y. 10014 _To_ _FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, ESQ._ _OF LONDON_ _MY DEAR FURNIVALL_: _Without the Percy MS. no one would pretend to make a collection of the English Ballads, and but for you that manuscript would still, I think, be beyond reach of man, yet exposed to destructive chances. Through your exertions and personal sacrifices, directly, the famous and precious folio has been printed; and, indirectly, in consequence of the same, it has been transferred to a place where it is safe, and open to inspection. This is only one of a hundred reasons which I have for asking you to accept the dedication of this book from_ _Your grateful friend and fellow-student_, _F. J. CHILD._ _Cambridge, Mass., December 1, 1882._ ADVERTISEMENT TO PART I NUMBERS 1-28 It was my wish not to begin to print The English and Scottish Popular Ballads until this unrestricted title should be justified by my having at command every valuable copy of every known ballad. A continuous effort to accomplish this object has been making for some nine or ten years, and many have joined in it. By correspondence, and by an extensive diffusion of printed circulars, I have tried to stimulate collection from tradition in Scotland, Canada, and the United States, and no becoming means has been left unemployed to obtain possession of unsunned treasures locked up in writing. The gathering from tradition has been, as ought perhaps to have been foreseen at this late day, meagre, and generally of indifferent quality. Materials in the hands of former editors have, in some cases, been lost beyond recovery, and very probably have lighted fires, like that large cantle of the Percy manuscript, _maxime deflendus_! Access to several manuscript collections has not yet been secured. But what is still lacking is believed to bear no great proportion to what is in hand, and may soon come in, besides: meanwhile, the uncertainties of the world forbid a longer delay to publish so much as has been got together. Of hitherto unused materials, much the most important is a large collection of ballads made by Motherwell. For leave to take a copy of this I am deeply indebted to the present possessor, Mr Malcolm Colquhoun Thomson, of Glasgow, who even allowed the manuscript to be sent to London, and to be retained several months, for my accommodation. Mr J. Wylie Guild, of Glasgow, also permitted the use of a note-book of Motherwell's which supplements the great manuscript, and this my unwearied friend, Mr James Barclay Murdoch, to whose solicitation I owe both, himself transcribed with...