List of Books for Ballad Study for English Readers
A — The Literary History of Ballads
The Introductions, etc., to the Collections of Ballads in List B.
1861. David Irving. History of Scottish Poetry.
1871. Thomas Warton. History of English Poetry, ed. W. Carew Hazlitt. 4 vols.
1875. Andrew Lang. Article in Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition), vol. iii.
1876. Stopford Brooke. English Literature. New edition, enlarged, 1897.
1883. W. W. Newell. Games and Songs of American Children. New York.
1887. Andrew Lang. Myth, Ritual, and Religion. 2 vols.
1893. John Veitch. History and Poetry of the Scottish Border. 2 vols.
1893. F. J. Child. Article ‘Ballads’ in Johnson’s Cyclopædia, vol. i. pp. 464‑6.
1895‑97. W. J. Courthope. A History of English Poetry. Vols. i. and ii.
1897. G. Gregory Smith. The Transition Period: being vol. iv. of Periods of English Literature, ed. G. Saintsbury.
1898. Andrew Lang in Quarterly Review for July.
1901. F. B. Gummere. The Beginnings of Poetry.
1903. E. K. Chambers. The Mediæval Stage. 2 vols.
1903. Andrew Lang in Folk-Lore for June.
1903. J. H. Millar. A Literary History of Scotland.
B — Collections of Ballads
| [This list does not pretend to be exhaustive, but to give the more important collections, especially those containing trustworthy Introductions.] | |
| 1723‑25. | A Collection of Old Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant. 3 vols. London. |
| 1724. | Allan Ramsay. The Ever-Green. 2 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1724‑27. | Allan Ramsay. The Tea-Table Miscellany. First eight editions in 3 vols., Edinburgh, Dublin, and London. Ninth and subsequent editions in four volumes, or four volumes in one, London. |
| 1765. | Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 3 vols. London. |
| 1769. | David Herd. The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Edinburgh. The second edition, 1776, under a slightly different title. 2 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1781. | John Pinkerton. Scottish Tragic Ballads. London. |
| 1787‑1803. | James Johnson. The Scots Musical Museum. 6 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1790. | Joseph Ritson. Ancient Songs, etc. London. (Printed 1787, dated 1790, and published 1792.) |
| 1791. | Joseph Ritson. Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry. London. |
| 1794. | Joseph Ritson. Scotish Song. 2 vols. London. |
| 1795. | „ „ Robin Hood. 2 vols. London. |
| 1802‑3. | Walter Scott. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 3 vols. Kelso and Edinburgh. |
| 1806. | Robert Jamieson. Popular Ballads and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions. 2 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1808. | John Finlay. Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, chiefly ancient. 2 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1822. | Alexander Laing. Scarce Ancient Ballads. Aberdeen. |
| 1823. | Alexander Laing. The Thistle of Scotland. Aberdeen. |
| 1823. | Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. A Ballad Book. Edinburgh. |
| 1824. | James Maidment. A North Countrie Garland. Edinburgh. |
| 1826. | Robert Chambers. The Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Edinburgh. |
| 1827. | George Kinloch. Ancient Scottish Ballads. London and Edinburgh. |
| 1827. | William Motherwell. Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. Glasgow. |
| 1828. | Peter Buchan. Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland. 2 vols. Edinburgh. |
| 1834. | The Universal Songster. 3 vols. London. |
| 1845. | Alexander Whitelaw. The Book of Scottish Ballads. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. |
| 1846. | James Henry Dixon. Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London. |
| 1847. | John Matthew Gutch. A Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. 2 vols. London. |
| 1855‑59. | William Chappell. Popular Music of the Olden Time. 2 vols. London. |
| 1857. | Robert Bell. Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London. |
| 1857‑59. | Francis James Child. English and Scottish Ballads. 8 vols. 2nd edition, 1864. |
| 1864. | William Allingham. The Ballad Book. London. |
| 1867‑68. | J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall. Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript. 4 vols. London. |
| 1882-98. | Francis James Child. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. Boston, New York, and London. |
| 1895. | Andrew Lang. Border Ballads. London: Lawrence and Bullen. |
| 1897. | Andrew Lang. A Collection of Ballads. London: Chapman and Hall’s ‘Diamond Library.’ |
| 1897. | Francis B. Gummere. Old English Ballads. Boston, U.S.A. Athenæum Press Series. |
| 1902. | T. F. Henderson. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, by Sir Walter Scott. New edition. 3 vols. London. |