Saturday, August 6, 2016

Illustrated British Ballads, Old and New

George Barnett Smith - Illustrated British Ballads, Old and New (1881)

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The title pretty much tells you what this book is about - it includes both modern (more or less) ballads from identifiable authors (Macaulay and Drayton for example) as well as collected folk material.  The book is contemporary with Child and there are a few overlaps though overall Smith isn't quite so grim or fantastic.  There are decent headnotes and the illustrations range from merely ornamental to scenes from the ballad.

George Barnett Smith (1841-1909) was a British writer who worked for the Globe and the Dictionary of National Biography among numerous others.  He published several books including popular biographies of Shelley, Hugo, Emperor William I and Gladstone.  He later took up engraving.