Ballads

“I knew a very wise man that believed that * * * if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.”

“I have a passion for ballads. * * * They are the gypsy children of song, born under green hedgerows in the leafy lanes and bypaths of literature,—in the genial Summertime.”

“I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew!Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.”

“I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.”

“I've now got the music book ready,Don't sing English ballads to me!”

“The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair That wholly consisted of lines like these.”

“Thespis, the first professor of our art,At country wakes sung ballads from a cart.”

“Some people resemble ballads which are only sung for a certain time.”

“For a ballad's a thing you expect to find lies in.”

“More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.”

“A famous man is Robin Hood,The English ballad-singer's joy.”