Note 58 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads is the most scholarly and complete collection in our language. Gummere's Old English Ballads is a good short work. Professor Kittredge's Introduction to the Cambridge edition of Child's Ballads is the best summary of a very difficult subject. For an extended discussion of the literary character of the ballad, see Gummere's The Popular Ballad.