WHAT IS A BALLAD ? 17

with or without accompaniment or dance, in assemblies of the
people.

Narrative songs of this nature could be heard all over Europe
in the later years of the fifteenth century or the first half of the
sixteenth, and they are still enjoyed or newly created in central,
south-western, and south-eastern Europe and in parts of America
where English, Scandinavian, and Spanish ballads still live. The
area covered by balladry is vast and the period since they first ,
appeared in the twelfth century is long, yet their unity as a literary '
type is convincing. The same or similar subjects recur in them all,
the same situations, the same generalized handling, the same habit
of repetition and stock phrases, the same rejection of claim to
authorship, the same instinctive response by the unlettered audi-
ence to the often blind and illiterate singer, and even the same
reward for the entertainer—£un vaso de bon vino*. Within the
type, however, there are differences which have a regional signifi-
cance and may be defined with reference to those balladries in
which a more or less uniform usage has been established. In
France, Doncieux distinguished between 'complaintes5 and 'chan-
sons a danser'; the latter are verses with refrains, capable of being
danced; the former are not strophic, and their use of tragic material
goes some way to justify the somewhat unsatisfactory term 'com-
plainte5. It is not, however, in the presence or absence of the
dance that one can seek a criterion of ballad differences. Many
German and English ballads are unsuitable for dancing either
because of their words or their tunes, though it is possible that
their form was originally that of the 'carole'. In Serbia there is an
apparently firm distinction between the songs of men or warriors
(junacke pesme) and those of women (zenske pesme); the latter
only are danced, and the former are not so much songs as recita-
tives. One is tempted to use these terms to distinguish between
traditional narratives and traditional lyrics, especially as this dif-
ferentiation of function between men and women could be sup-
ported by the example of other countries, such as Portugal. But |
the women's songs are not only by women or for women, nor are
they uniquely lyrical or all suited to the dance. Lyrical qualities ,
enter into ballads in various proportions, and have been held by ,
some writers, such as the American Gummere, to be essential to *
the type. It is difficult to grant that all ballads are lyrical, since
very many Spanish 'romances* are wholly narrative or dramatic,

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