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    6 - 02 The Medieval Ballad

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    ruben specchi

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    6 - 02 The Medieval Ballad

    Uploaded by

    ruben specchi
    4 views9 pages

    Original Title

    6_02-the-medieval-ballad

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    4 views9 pages

    6 - 02 The Medieval Ballad

    Uploaded by

    ruben specchi

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9

    The medieval ballad

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
    Margaret Layton © 2012
    The medieval ballad

    1. Stylistic features

    The ballad

    • belonged to ‘folk’ or ‘popular’ tradition

    • was a short narrative song

    • was preserved and transmitted orally

    • was impersonal: narrator / singer rarely interferes

    • personal pronoun ‘I’ is one that represents a party or


    a community

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    1. Stylistic features

    The ballad
    • is composed of short stanzas of two or four lines
    • contains repetition of words or lines

    O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son?


    And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?
    I ha’ been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon,
    For I’m wearied wi’ hunting and fain wad lie down.

    (from Lord Randal)

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    2. Narrative features

    • Dialogue is often used.

    O sister, sister let me live,


    And all that’s mine I’ll surely give.

    It’s your own true love that I’ll have and more
    But thou shalt never come ashore.

    (from Cruel Sister)

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    3. Content

    • The ballad focuses on a single crucial episode or


    situation.

    There were three gypsies tae oor hall door,


    An’ O but they sang bonnie O
    They sang so sweet and too complete
    That they stole the heart of our lady, O!

    (from Gypsy Laddies)

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    4. Setting
    • There is little description of the setting.
    There was a king and a noble king
    A king of muckle1 fame
    And he had an only daughter dear,
    Lady Diamond was her name.

    He had a servant, a kitchen boy,


    A lad of muckle scorn
    And she loved him long and she loved him aye
    Till the grass overgrew the corn.

    (from Lady Diamond)


    1. Great.

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    5. Characters

    • The characters are both fantastic creatures and


    human beings.

    Fair Lady Isabel sits in her bower sewing


    Aye as the gowans1 grow gay.

    There she heard and elf-knight blowing his horn


    The first morning in May.

    (from Lady Isabel and the Elf-knight)

    1. Daisies.

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    6. The language
    • The language is plain and formulaic.
    1
    There lived a lady in the north sea shore
    Lay the bent1 to the bonnie broom2
    Two daughters were the babes she bore
    Fa la la la la la la la la la.
    2
    As one grew bright as in the sun
    Lay the bent to the bonnie broom
    So coal black grew the elder one
    Fa la la la la la la la la la.
    1. Giunco.
    (from Cruel Sister) 2. Ginestra.

    Performer - Culture & Literature


    The medieval ballad

    7. Theme

    • Ballads deal with supernatural events /


    characters, love, war, dramatic events.

    Ah my Geordie will be hanged in a golden chain


    ‘Tis not the chain of many,
    Stole sixteen of the King’s royal deer
    And he sold them in Bohenny
    (from Geordie)

    Performer - Culture & Literature

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