or to the setting, or to the mood of the ballad in any way?

2. Omitting the refrain, what other repetitions are there in this ballad? Make a study of these in the following way: (a) How many persons are present? What part does each play in the action? (b) If you have heard the part of the ballad dealing with the first sister, can you make the part referring to the second? To the third? (c) What "increment," or addition, then, do you find? How does it help tell the story? (d) Why are there no repetitions in the last five stanzas?

3. Reconstruct the story in your own words, just as you did in studying "Lord Randal." Underline, or point out to the class, the facts in the complete story that are not told directly by the ballad. How do you know these things happened? How much of the real story happened before the ballad-action begins?

4. Is there any description of character in this ballad? How does the third sister differ from the first two? Do you recall any similar instances in other poems?

1. Oliver Goldsmith, a great English poet, speaks of the time when an "old dairy maid sang me to tears with the cruelty of Barbara Allan." This was a boyhood memory, and he says that no music that he heard in after life ever seemed half so fine. The incident illustrates not only the power of the ballads as sung to their original music, but also the way in which these old songs were handed down from generation to generation before anyone ever thought of printing them. You might try to find the music to which "Barbara Allan" has always been sung.

2. Note the musical quality of the name "Barbara Allan" and the effect of the constant repetition of the name in the ballad.

3. Who are the speakers in lines 13-20? Who is the speaker in lines 33-36? Do these lines remind you of a stanza in a ballad previously read? In lines 29-32 note the first line and cite a similar style of phrasing from an earlier ballad.

4. Wherein lies the tragedy of this poem? Why was Barbara Allan so unrelenting? Did she love Sir John Græme?

THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE It fell about the Lammas tide,

When the muir-men win their hay, The doughty Douglas bound him to ride Into England, to drive a prey.

2. muir-men, moor men. win, winnow, dry by airing.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. Describe the characteristic, Border raid that is the cause of the Battle of Otterbourne. Who starts the trouble-the Scottish Douglas or the English Percy?

2. Is the story told from the Scottish point of view or that of the English?

3. Why does Percy tell the Douglas to wait for him "three dayis" at Otterbourne? 4. Describe the fulfillment of the Douglas's dream,

"I saw a dead man win a fight,

And I think that man was I."

5. Note that in the description of Lady Percy, when she saw Lord Percy fall, we are told not how she felt but how she looked. Find other cases in which the external appearances of things are given instead of feelings or abstract ideas; how are we told, for instance, that the Battle of Otterbourne was fought at night?

6. Point out examples of vigorous verbs of action. Note passages where the meter is rough, as if the story were more important than the versification. This poem contains many examples of characteristic ballad alliteration; point out a few.

7. This ballad, and the two that follow it, will introduce you to the heroic type of ballad. All three deal with conflicts between Scottish and English warriors near the border between the two countries. What differences do you note between this ballad and those previously read? Does it resemble the epic in any respects?

BEWICK AND GRAHAME Old Grahame he is to Carlisle gone, Where Sir Robert Bewick there met he; In arms to the wine they are gone, And drank till they were both merry.

And bully to his son cannot be; For his son Bewick can both write and read, And sure I am that cannot thee.

"I put thee to school, but thou would not learn,

I bought thee books, but thou would not read;

But my blessing thou's never have

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Till I see with Bewick thou can save thy head."

"Oh, pray forbear, my father dear;

That ever such a thing should be! Shall I venture my body in field to fight 55 With a man that's faith and troth to me?"

"What's that thou sayst, thou limmer loon? Or how dare thou stand to speak to me? If thou do not end this quarrel soon,

Here is my glove thou shalt fight me."

Christy stoopd low unto the ground,

Unto the ground, as you'll understand: "O father, put on your glove again,

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The wind hath blown it from your hand." "What's that thou sayst, thou limmer loon? Or how dare thou stand to speak to me? If thou do not end this quarrel soon, Here's my hand thou shalt fight me."