T. (Writing "bravery".) Anything else?

P. A hero and a villain.

T. Hero and villain; in other words you take sides?
P. Yes.

T. What other qualities besides bravery?

P. Treachery, of the kind in the ballad of Johnnie Armstrong.

T. Yes, and the hero shows what quality?

P. He believes in the king even when he is summoned before him.

T. Good faith on one side, and treachery on the other. Anything else?

P. Honor.

T. Honor, yes. (Writes "honor”.)

P. A great deal of honor among themselves.

T. Loyalty to each other; and as regards their enemies, what?

P. They used to fight for fun, and they had certain rules; they were not really angry, they had to keep certain rules. T. In other words?

P. They couldn't do just as they wanted to.

T. There were rules of honor even toward your enemy, a sort of amateur spirit.

P. Courtesy to their enemies.

T. Courtesy, and perhaps we might say this includes being true to the rules. Could we say anything about the style in which these poems were written, kind of language, and kind of verse form?

P. Could be put to music.

T. Easy to sing, for one thing?

P. Yes.

T. Complicated tunes, or simple?
P. Simple.

T. How about the words, the English?
P. Old English and Scotch.

T. Old English and Scotch; easy or hard to understand? P. After you have read two or three, I don't think it is hard.

T. If you had been an old Scotchman of those times, should you say they were written in hard or easy language? P. Simple,-quaint.

T. Simple and quaint-old-fashioned. Let us turn to the ballads you had for to-day; see how they compare with these old ones. The first one, Lord Ullin's Daughter-as regards the subject matter, is it the kind of story you think would appeal to ancient writers?

P. It seems so; this one was about an elopement, they seem to write that kind of story.

T. Anything else?

P. Shipwreck.

T. Do you think the old ballad writers would have been satisfied with the way the story came out?

P. I don't think so; they liked to see their side win; the lovers won in this case, but were drowned; I don't think they would have liked it that way.

T. If they are going to get away from the father, they ought to get away clear. I think that is true; things end simply in the old ballads, it is an out-and-out tragedy or a happy ending.

P. They had some death, like Johnnie Armstrong, where the hero was killed.

T. How was he killed?

P. By treachery.

T. Was there any here?

P. No.

T. Were they killed through anybody's fault, or by accident?

P. By accident.

T. How is it in the old ballads?

P. In the first stories they were not,-a shipwreck.

T. But in most cases it is a matter of somebody's treachery. In Sir Patrick Spence who gets drowned?

P. The Scotch nobles.

T. There it is the lords and all those other fine noblemen. As far as the style goes in Lord Ullin's Daughter, should you say that the story goes rapidly, as rapidly as possible, or should you say that if an old ballad singer were telling the story, there is something that could be left out?

P. I think so.

T. Can you see any group of verses that could be left out without breaking the story up?

P. I think where it described the boat (reads) :—

"The boat has left a stormy land,

A stormy sea before her

When, oh! too strong for human hand,
The tempest gather'd o'er her."

Those descriptions could be left out; and (reads) :—

"For sore dismay'd, through storm and shade,
His child he did discover:-

One lovely hand she stretch'd for aid,

And one was round her lover."

T. You think the picture of how she looked in the boat does not count?

P. I like it, but it could have been left out.

T. The old ballad singers would have left out that part. Are there things in the earlier part of the poem that could be left out if you just wanted the story?

P. The first verse.

T. Better if they got started at once, perhaps. Miss Weiss?

P. The third verse:

"And fast before her father's men
Three days we've fled together,
For should he find us in the glen,

My blood would stain the heather."

He says right after that that the horses are right behind him, so he could have left that out.

T. He spends too much time in talking to the boatman, that is true.

P. The seventh verse:

"By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water-wraith was shrieking;
And in the scowl of Heaven each face
Grew dark as they were speaking."

T. You can't help wondering why they didn't get in the boat, and stop talking. The old ballad writers pared it all down to nothing but the story. Turn to the next one,-Lady Clare; would that have pleased the old ballad writers?

P. I think it would have. It is just the kind of love story they liked, it all turned out well.

T. Turns out well in the end; and in it the lovers show what kind of qualities?

P. Faithful.

T. You like that?

P. Yes.

T. The sort of things anybody would like, all the admirable qualities of a good love story. I wonder if any one noticed the language of this poem, anything that would show that Tennyson was trying to imitate the language of the old ballads?

P. "I trow they did not part in scorn."

T. "I trow"-that sounds old-fashioned. Anything else? P. The way he brings in the nurse:

"In there came old Alice the nurse,

Said, 'Who was this that went from thee?'

'It was my cousin,' said Lady Clare;

'To-morrow he weds with me.""

and "thee" and "thou."

T. How about the word "Said"; has that any subject?
P. "Alice the nurse" is subject of both came and said.

T. Yes: anything else?

P. The last of that verse, "To-morrow he weds with me." T. That sounds old-fashioned; anything else?

P. Some of the repetition.

T. What line?

P. "Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?"
T. And "Yet here's a kiss for my mother dear,

My mother dear, if this be so,"

sounds like the kind of repetition a man would make on a guitar, or something like that.

"Play me no tricks,' said Lord Ronald,
'For I am yours in word and in deed.
Play me no tricks,' said Lord Ronald,
'Your riddle is hard to read.""

It comes again and again. When you come to Lucy Gray, a poem which was very famous, and which is, perhaps, a little hard to get the real spirit of at first; did any one feel especially attracted by that? Miss Graves? What did you like about it?

(The lesson was continued for about twenty minutes longer.)