English and Scottish Ballads (Vol. 1-8) is a comprehensive collection of traditional folk songs and ballads from England and Scotland. These volumes showcase the rich oral tradition of storytelling and lyrical beauty found in the balladry of the British Isles. The ballads cover a wide range of themes including love, betrayal, murder, and the supernatural, providing a glimpse into the lives and beliefs of the common people of the past. The language is simple yet powerful, drawing the reader in with its vivid imagery and emotional depth. The collection serves as a valuable resource for those interested in traditional folk music and literature, as well as for scholars studying the cultural history of England and Scotland. Various Authors have meticulously compiled and preserved these ballads, ensuring that they continue to be appreciated and enjoyed for generations to come. Their dedication to this task reflects a deep appreciation for the cultural heritage of the British Isles and a commitment to preserving these timeless works of art. English and Scottish Ballads (Vol. 1-8) is a must-read for anyone seeking to immerse themselves in the beauty and storytelling tradition of English and Scottish folk music.

In The Late Victorian Folksong Revival: The Persistence of English Melody, 1878-1903, E. David Gregory provides a reliable and comprehensive history of the birth and early development of the first English folksong revival. Continuing where Victorian Songhunters, his first book, left off, Gregory systematically explores what the Late Victorian folksong collectors discovered in the field and what they published for posterity, identifying differences between the songs noted from oral tradition and those published in print. In doing so, he determines the extent to which the collectors distorted what they found when publishing the results of their research in an era when some folksong texts were deemed unsuitable for "polite ears." The book provides a reliable overall survey of the birth of a movement, tracing the genesis and development of the first English folksong revival. It discusses the work of more than a dozen song-collectors, focusing in particular on three key figures: the pioneer folklorist in the English west country, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould; Frank Kidson, who greatly increased the known corpus of Yorkshire song; and Lucy Broadwood, who collected mainly in the counties of Sussex and Surrey, and with Kidson and others, was instrumental in founding the Folk Song Society in the late 1890s. The book includes copious examples of the song tunes and texts collected, including transcriptions of nearly 300 traditional ballads, broadside ballads, folk lyrics, occupational songs, carols, shanties, and "national songs," demonstrating the abundance and high quality of the songs recovered by these early collectors.

This classic 19th-century survey offers absolute fidelity to original texts as well as invaluable commentary by Francis James Child. Volume 1 includes Parts I and II of the original set — ballads 1-53.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1890.

Many readers today associate the early modern history play with Shakespeare. While not wishing to ignore the influence of Shakespeare, this collection of essays explores other historical drama between 1500 and 1660, covering a wide range of different formats. An introduction provides a survey of current criticism, exploring both early modern and contemporary definitions of the 'history play'. Individual essays in chronological order discuss a wide variety of possible sources for historical drama, ranging from oral traditions to chronicles. They also explore genres outside the canon which think of 'history' in different ways, such as shows, moralities and closet drama.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.