ESSAYS IN THE STUDY OF FOLK-SONGS.
Reading edition
By the Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco.
“A pleasant volume on a pleasant topic.... The Countess, with her sincere enthusiasm for what is simple, passionate, and sensuous in folk-song, and with her lucid and unaffected style, well understands the mode in which the educated collector should approach the shy singers or story-tellers of Europe.... Her introduction is perhaps, to the scientific student of popular culture, the best part of her book.... Next to her introduction, perhaps her article on ‘Death in Folk-Poetry’ is the most serviceable essay in the volume.... ‘Folk Lullabies’ is perhaps the most pleasant of the remaining essays in the admirable volume, a volume remarkable for knowledge, sympathy, and good taste.”—Extracts from a page notice in the Saturday Review, April 24, 1886.
“This is a very delightful book, full of information and thoughtful suggestions. It deals principally with the Folk-songs of Southern peoples, Venetian, Sicilian, Armenian, Provence, and Greek Songs of Calabria, but there are several essays devoted to the general characteristics of Folk-Poetry, such as the influence of Nature, the Inspiration of Death, the idea of Fate, the numerous songs connected with the rites of May, Folk-Lullabies, and Folk-Dirges. There is also an interesting essay on what is called the White Paternoster, and Children’s Rhyming Prayers. This is one of the most valuable, and certainly one of the most interesting, books which have been written on a subject which has of late years been exciting an ever-increasing attention, and which involves many important problems connected with the early history of the human race.”—Standard.
“‘Folk-Songs,’ traditional popular ballads, are as tempting to me as King Charles’s head to Mr. Dick. But interesting as the topic of the origin and diffusion and literary merit of these poems may be—poems much the same in all European countries—they are rather caviare to the general. The Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco is, or should be, a well-known authority among special students of this branch of literature, to whom I heartily commend her ‘Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs.’ The Countess is, perhaps, most familiar with Southern volksleider, as of Greece, Italy, and Sicily. Her book is a treasure-house of Folk-lore of various kinds, and the matter is handled with much poetic appreciation and a good deal of learning.”—Daily News.
“A kind of popular introduction to the study of Folk-lore.”—St. James’s Gazette.
About 500 pages, crown 8vo., cloth, price 10s. 6d.