introduced, almost simultaneously, by Algernon Charles Swinburne, Austin
Dobson, Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse and W. E. Henley; but D. G. Rossetti's
popular translation of Villon's "Ballade of Fair Ladies" may almost be
considered an original poem, especially as it entirely disregards the
metrical rules of the ballades. Mr. Dobson's "The Prodigals" (1876) was one
of the earliest examples of a correct English specimen. In 1880 Mr Lang
published a volume of _Ballades in Blue China_, which found innumerable
imitators. The modern English ballades have been, as a rule, closely
modelled on the lines laid down in the 15th century by Henri de Croi. With
the exception of the sonnet, the ballade is the noblest of the artificial
forms of verse cultivated in English literature. It lends itself equally
well to pathos and to mockery, and in the hands of a competent poet
produces an effect which is rich in melody without seeming fantastic or
artificial.

(E. G.)

BALLADS. The word "ballad" is derived from the O. Fr. _baller_, to dance,
and originally meant a song sung to the rhythmic movement of a dancing
chorus. Later, the word, in the form of _ballade_ (_q.v._), became the
technical term for a particular form of old-fashioned French poetry,
remarkable for its involved and [v.03 p.0265] recurring rhymes. "Laisse moi
aux Jeux Floraux de Toulouse toutes ces vieux poesies Francoises comme
_ballades_," says Joachim du Bellay in 1550; and Philaminte, the lady
pedant of Moliere's _Femmes Savantes_, observes--

"La ballade, a mon gout, est une chose fade,
Ce n'en est plus la mode, elle sent son vieux temps."

In England the term has usually been applied to any simple tale told in
simple verse, though attempts have been made to confine it to the subject
of this article, namely, the literary form of popular songs, the folk-tunes
associated with them being treated in the article SONG. By popular songs we
understand what the Germans call _Volkslieder_, that is, songs with words
composed by members of the people, for the people, handed down by oral
tradition, and in style, taste and even incident, common to the people in
all European countries. The beauty of these purely popular ballads, their
directness and freshness, has made them admired even by the artificial
critics of the most artificial periods in literature. Thus Sir Philip
Sydney confesses that the ballad of _Chevy Chase_, when chanted by "a blind
crowder," stirred his blood like the