If the ballad, whether defined as dance song or as
narrative lyric, is not the archetypal poetic form, pre-
serving the model of primitive song, if it did not originate,
more specifically than other lyric verse, in the festal dance
songs of primitive peoples, is it not, at least, to be asso-
ciated with the dances or the dance songs of the Middle
Ages? Such association is customary. The primary defi-
nition of the English ballad, in English dictionaries of the
nineteenth century, is "dance song." The etymology of
the name makes linkage of the ballad with the dances of
mediæval times practically inevitable. A few quotations
will make clear the present state of opinion.

The leading American writer on ballads in recent times,
Professor F. J. Gummere, affirmed, "But there is neither
hurry nor compact narrative in the real ballad, so named
not because it was sung at a dance but because it was a
dance, a dramatic situation, unchanged in bulk and plan,
but shifting its parts in tune with these until a climax is
attained." ¹ According to Professor G. L. Kittredge, "It
appears that there is no lack of characteristic traits . . .
which justify the conjecture that the history of balladry, if
we could follow it back in a straight line without inter-
ruptions would lead us to a very simple condition of

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