GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES 245

soldiers' ballads to express humorous contempt. So we have the
Bavarian Schnadahufi of 1870, which begins

'Twas Bismarck spun the fabric,

'twas Aloltke cut it square,
and for those poor old Frenchies 'twas

a miserable affair.

More obvious is the satiric intention in another:

Napoleons One and
Two are under sod,

No. Three is in clink,

No, Four—help him God!

Plattdeutsch had been used, with the same satiric intention, in
ballads of the War of Liberation.

In Flanders and the Low Countries one marks the proximity of
France. There is a more witty and cynical turn to the narratives,
more criticism of the lower religious, and the use of typically
French situations. A similar attitude seems to characterize the
Rhinelands. Cologne is a capital towards which Flemish eyes turn.
In other pieces there is some special affinity with Hanover and
Brunswick. The ballads of the Low Countries are, in fact, an
Inseparable part of the balladry of Low Germany. The majority
of pieces are held in common, and it would be extremely difficult
to say where any one arises. One notess however, the strong civic
sense of the Flemings, which sometimes finds expression in their
songs. The sea-robbers of the North Sea and Baltic give rise to
some fine ballads which are North German; so are the ballads of
mermen. North Germany and the Low Countries were equally
affected by the tide of High German ballads, when this began to
flow strongly northwards in the sixteenth century, and It is across
this area that tunes and words reached Denmark and Sweden. The
mingling of Low and High German ballads Is more complete than
those of England and Scotland. Separation would be utterly im-
possible, nor Is it feasible to indicate any general distinctions.
Throughout the whole area there Is no suggestion of the danced
ballad, apart from an example from Dittmarschen, close up against
the Danish border.

Political verse, in Latin and German, flourished for some cen-
turies before the rise of the true ballad, and examples are given by
most anthologists. At what moment we can identify oral traditional
narratives it is hard to determine. The authentic note is not heard