e Servian popular songs, Goethe considered it as
an advantage, that the work of translation had fallen into the hands
of a lady. Only a female mind, the great poet thought, was capable of
the degree of accommodation requisite to clothe the "barbarian poems"
in a dress, in which they could be relished by readers of nations
foreign to their genius. Even the love-songs, although "of the highest
beauty," he thought could only he enjoyed _en masse_. But this last
remark applies in a certain measure to all popular poetry; for these
little songs are like the warblings of the wood-birds; and a single
voice would do little justice to the whole. The monotonous chirping of
one little feathered singer is tedious or burdensome; while we enjoy
their full concert as the sweetest music of nature. One swallow does
not make a summer. But the whole blissful sense of nature waking from
her wintry sleep comes over you, when you hear the full, mixed chorus
of the little songsters of the grove; and the monotonous cry of the
cuckoo seems to belong just as much to the completeness of the
concert, as the enchanting solo of the nightingale.

If we attempt to characterize Slavic popular poetry as a whole, we
have chiefly to consider those shorter songs, which are common to all
Slavic tribes, and which alone can be compared to the ballads of other
nations. For, among the Slavi, only the Servians, including the
Dalmatians, Montenegrins, and Croats, who speak the same
language,--and indeed among all other modern nations they
alone,--possess long popular epics, of a heroic character. What of
this species of poetry still survives among the other Slavic nations,
or indeed in any other country of Europe, is only the echo of former
times. The endlessly protracted "Storie" of the Italians are, indeed,
often longer than the Servian heroic tales; but in no other respect do
they afford a point of comparison with them.

The Slavic popular songs have nothing, or very little, of the bold
dramatic character which animates the Scotch, German, and Scandinavian
ballads. Even dialogues occur seldom, except in some narrative form;
as for instance:

To her brother thus the lady answered;

or,

And the bonny maiden asked her mother.

A division into epic and lyric ballads would also be difficult. A
considerable portion, especially of the Russian and Servian songs,
begin with a few narrative verses; although the chief part of the song
is purely lyric. These i