In this article we will talk about such a literary genre as a ballad. What is a ballad? This is a literary work written in the form of poetry or prose, which always has a pronounced plot. Most often, ballads have a historical connotation and you can learn about certain historical or mythical characters in them. Sometimes ballads are written to be sung in theatrical productions. People fell in love with this genre, first of all, because of the interesting plot, which always has a certain intrigue.
When creating a ballad, the author is guided either by the historical event that inspires him, or by folklore. In this genre, specially fictional characters are rarely present. People like to recognize the characters they liked before.
The ballad as a literary genre has the following features:
- The presence of the composition: introduction, main part, climax, denouement.
- Having a storyline.
- The attitude of the author to the characters is conveyed.
- The emotions and feelings of the characters are shown.
- A harmonious combination of real and fantastic moments of the plot.
- Description of landscapes.
- The presence of mystery, riddles in the plot.
- Character dialogues.
- A harmonious combination of lyrics and epic.
Thus, we figured out the specifics of this literary genre and gave a definition of what a ballad is.
From the history of the term
For the first time, the term "ballad" was used in ancient Provençal manuscripts as early as the 13th century. In these manuscripts, the word "ballad" was used to describe dance movements. In those days, this word did not mean any genre in literature or other forms of art.
As a poetic literary form, the ballad began to be understood in medieval France only at the end of the 13th century. One of the first poets who tried to write in this genre was a Frenchman named Jeannot de Lecurel. But, for those times, the ballad genre was not purely poetic. Such poems were written for musical performances. The musicians danced to the ballad, thus amusing the audience.
In the 14th century, a poet named Guillaume fe Machaux wrote more than two hundred ballads and quickly became famous as a result. He wrote love lyrics, completely depriving the genre of "dancing". After his work, the ballad became a purely literary genre.
With the advent of the printing press, the first ballads printed in newspapers began to appear in France. People really liked them. The French loved to gather with the whole family at the end of a hard day's work in order to enjoy the interesting plot of the ballad together.
In classical ballads, from the time of Machaux, in one stanza of the text, the number of verses did not exceed ten. A century later, the trend changed and ballads began to be written in square stanzas.
One of the most famous balladists of that time was Christina Pisanskaya, who, like Masho, wrote ballads for print, and not for dances and dances. She became famous for her work The Book of a Hundred Ballads.
After some time, this genre found its place in the work of other European poets and writers. As for Russian literature, the ballad appeared in it only in the 19th century. This happened due to the fact that Russian poets were inspired by German romanticism, and since the Germans of that time described their lyrical experiences in ballads, this genre quickly spread here as well. Among the most famous Russian ballad poets are Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Belinsky and others.
Among the most famous world writers, whose ballads, no doubt, went down in history, one can name Goethe, Kamenev, Victor Hugo, Burger, Walter Scott and other outstanding writers.
In the modern world, in addition to the classical literary genre, the ballad has also acquired its primary musical roots. In the West, there is a whole musical direction in rock music, which is called "rock ballad". The songs of this genre sing mainly about love.
Trying to give a clear and complete definition of the term ballad in English, one may encounter considerable difficulties. They are due to the fact that the range of its meanings is very wide. The reasons for this lie in the peculiarities of the history and development of those poetic genres that were designated by this word.
The term ballad comes from the Latin verb ballare (to dance). Therefore, the song that accompanied the dance was called balada in Provence, and balata in Italy (XIII century). Over time, the term ballad changes its meaning: in the XIV century. the French ballade is a genre of court poetry that required sophisticated skill from the author. This is a poem of three stanzas with three continuous rhymes (usually in the pattern ab ab bc bc) with an obligatory refrain followed by a shorter “parcel” (envoi) repeating the rhymes of the second half of each stanza. The number of verses in a stanza had to match the number of syllables in a line (8, 10 or 12). Male rhymes had to alternate with female ones. It was very difficult to follow all these rules.
Already in the XIV century. the English borrow the ballad genre from French literature. Karl Ormansky (XV century), who spent 25 years in English captivity, wrote ballads freely in both French and English. Naturally, along with the genre, the word denoting it is also borrowed. It is spelled differently: ballades, balats, ballets, ballets, balletys, ballads.
In the XIV-XVI centuries. the term ballad was not used to refer to that oral genre of English and Scottish folk poetry, which is now called in English literary criticism: popular ballad, ancient ballad, ballad of tradition, traditional ballad. These old folk ballads at that time (in the XIV-XVI centuries) were known as songs (sometimes tales or ditties). The performers did not distinguish them from the mass of other songs in their repertoire.
At the same time, from the XVI century. the word ballad was widely used in relation to the artless, usually anonymous poems on the topic of the day, which were distributed in the form of printed leaflets on city streets. This genre was called: street ballad, stall ballad, broadside or broadsheet.
In dictionary Longman Dictionary of English. Longman Group UK Limited 1992 broadside and broadsheet are generally considered synonymous, but in highly specialized bibliographic terminology broadside is text printed on one side of a sheet, regardless of its size, and broadsheet is text continued on the back of the sheet. In domestic literary criticism, the term “lubok” was proposed for this urban street ballad.
It is hard to imagine two more different than the refined, stylistically complex French court ballad and the rough street ballad of the London common people. Scientists have long been occupied with the mystery associated with the transfer of the name from one genre to another. The explanation offered by some scholars for this transfer, that both the French and the English ballad were connected with dance, is now recognized as untenable.
Folklorist D.M. Balashov writes about the English ballad: “It would be erroneous to associate the origin of other genres with the name “ballad” with this genre. Balashov D.M. Folk ballads - M., 1983. It is possible that this statement is too categorical. The American scientist A. B. Friedman offered a convincing explanation for the paradox in question. He considers the link between French and English street ballads to be the so-called “pseudo-ballad”, which was one of the main genres of English poetry of the 15th century. (Gasparov M.L., 1989, 28). The fact is that in England the French ballad is undergoing significant changes. Justified by the lack of equally rhyming words in the English language, poets increase the number of rhymes, and also abandon the “sending” (envoi). The number of stanzas increases from three to 10-20.
The strict form is blurred. With an increase in the circle of readers, the pseudo-ballad is democratized. Simplifies her style. Increasingly used "ballad stanza" (ballad stanza), widespread in English folk poetry. This is a quatrain in which lines of four-foot and three-foot iambic alternate with rhyming according to the ab ac scheme (some other options are also possible). It is characteristic that one of the first printed street ballads that have come down to us, “A ballade of Luther, the pope, a cardinal and husbandman”, circa 1530) reveals traces of a connection with a pseudo-ballad.
This is a possible way of turning a French court ballad into an English street ballad.
During the XVI-XVII centuries. there is a gradual expansion of the meaning of the word ballad. So, in 1539, in the so-called “episcopal” translation of the Bible (Bishop's Bible), King Solomon’s “Song of Songs” was translated: “The ballet of bollets”, although there was some inappropriateness of the term “ballet” in relation to the text of the sacred And in 1549 the first poet-translator W. Bolvin (William Baldwin) published Canticles or Balades of Salomon, phraslyke declared in Englyshe Metres.
After 16th century the French ballad was long forgotten in England. However, by the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. imitation of this genre can be found in the works of some English poets (A. Lang, A. Swinburne, W. Henley, E. Goss, G.K. Chesterton).
The English street ballad existed from the 16th century until almost the 20th century, when it was supplanted by the tabloid newspaper, which borrowed from it the subject matter, the noisy manner of presenting the material, and even some design details (the use of Gothic font in the titles of English newspapers comes from the ballad) (English folk ballads, 1997 , 63).
The theme of the street ballad was extremely diverse. First of all, this is all kinds of sensational news: various miracles, omens, catastrophes, criminal stories, detailed descriptions of the execution of criminals. A variety of street ballad called “Good night” was very popular, which was a description of the last night of a criminal before execution. He remembers all his sins and calls on good Christians not to follow a bad example. In 1849, the circulation of two such ballads amounted to 2.5 million copies.
The street ballad did not lack plots, borrowing them from everywhere: from chivalric novels, historical chronicles (for example, T. Deloni's ballads), fablio, etc. Personal scores could be settled in ballads: Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV (1596) threatens his drinking companions to compose for each “a ballad with music to be sung at all crossroads” (part I, act II, sc.2, lines 48 -49). The ballad could tell a touching love story. There were also comic ballads, rough to the point of obscenity.
The attitude to the street ballad was ambivalent. A contemporary of Shakespeare, the poet and playwright Ben Jonson wrote: “The poet must abhor the writers of ballads” Jonson Ben Dramatic works: trans. from English / ed. I.A. Aksenova - M. Academy, 1931. And at the same time, ballads were an integral part of the urban culture of that time. The dramas of the Elizabethans are full of allusions to contemporary ballads. John Selden (1584-1654), a scholar and friend of Ben Jonson, notes: “Nothing captures the zeitgeist like ballads and lampoons” (Questions of English Contextology, Issue 1).
The street ballad served as a powerful weapon of struggle and invariably accompanied all the political crises of the 16th-18th centuries. During the years of the revolution and the civil war (40-60s of the 17th century), the printing of ballads was prohibited by parliament, and special spies monitored the observance of this ban. In 1688 King James II was exiled to the accompaniment of the ballad "Lilliburleo". In 1704, the poet J. Fletcher of Saltown wrote: “... if anyone were allowed to write all the ballads in the country, then he would no longer care who makes the laws” (Questions of English Contextology, Issue 2).
The number of ballads has steadily increased. From 1557 to 1709, more than 3,000 titles were printed, according to the far from complete data of the London Booksellers' Register. The printed ballad is also conquering rural England, displacing the old oral songs. However, much of this oral poetry ends up in print.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. the word ballad came to mean any song that was sung by the people, regardless of whether it was printed or transmitted orally. Thus, ancient songs of a narrative nature that have existed for many centuries also began to be called ballads. Domestic literary critic M.P. Alekseev understands English and Scottish ballad as a lyric-epic or lyrical-dramatic story, which has a strophic form, intended for singing, often accompanied by playing musical instruments (Alekseev, 1984, 292).
Scholars rightly consider the old traditional ballad and the printed street ballad to be genres. The main feature of the first is that, as a result of a long process of oral transmission, it has acquired a number of high artistic merits: brevity, expressiveness, drama, dynamic narration, etc. its figurative system, motives, plots, serious tone, depth of feelings sharply distinguish it from a cheeky, cynical, superficial, wordy street ballad, which is bound by printed text and is not able to improve in the process of oral transmission.
However, the two genres have a lot in common. Both belonged to the common people and were felt as something different from the fiction of the upper classes of society. For four centuries they were closely interconnected and influenced each other. Both were a specific combination of narrative, lyrical and, sometimes, dramatic elements (with the former predominating). They shared a common ballad stanza (with a few exceptions). And finally, all the ballads were closely connected with music and were often sung to the same old motifs.
As noted above, the ballad is a short folk song with narrative content. It is the plot that is the special feature that distinguishes the ballad from other poetic genres. The sources of ballad plots were Christian legends, chivalric romances, ancient myths and works of Greek and Roman authors in medieval retelling, the so-called “eternal” or “wandering” plots, as well as genuine historical events stylized on the basis of ready-made song schemes.
The development of ballad plots followed two main directions: the plots of the heroic-historical genre turned out to be extremely productive; in parallel, they intensively developed plots related to love themes. In fact, there was no sharp dividing line between these two groups. Heroic and love plots were often intertwined with each other within the framework of one ballad, absorbed fairy-tale folklore motifs, were sometimes interpreted in a comic way, acquired some specific features associated with the place of origin or existence of a particular ballad, but beyond the boundaries of the two named plots. -themed folk English and Scottish ballads never came out.
Heroic ballads, which are predominantly epic in nature, are based on specific historical events that can be traced to a greater or lesser extent in each of them, which gives the right to call them heroic-historical.
But not only historical events underlie the plots of such ballads. Ancient folk songs not only supplement the meager facts of history with information about events unknown to the chronicles, but give a vivid idea of human relations, how the distant ancestors of modern Englishmen and Scots thought and spoke, experienced and felt. From history, readers first of all learn what people did, and from ballads - what they were. Having directly become acquainted with the way of life, manners and customs of long gone generations with the help of ballads, we can better understand the writings of the chroniclers.
Heroic-historical folk ballads depict the wars between the English and the Scots, heroic deeds in the struggle for personal and national freedom. "Frontier" ballads were formed in the border zone between England and Scotland in the era of frequent clashes between these countries. Some of the ballads can be dated quite accurately, as they probably appeared shortly after the events they are told, taking listeners and readers back to the 14th century.
Such, for example, is the ballad "The Battle of Durham" (Durham field), which tells how King David of Scotland wanted to take advantage of the absence of the English king, who fought in France, and conquer England; he gathers an army, leads him to the English borders. There is a bloody battle at Durham (1346); the Scots are defeated, their king is taken prisoner; he is taken to London, and here he meets not only with the English king Edward, but also with the king of France, who was captured by the Black Prince and also brought to London: according to the composers of the ballad, the battle of Crescy (mixed here with the battle of Poitiers) in France and at Derham in northern England took place on the same day. The tendency of this "military" ballad betrays its English origin.
Another bloody episode in the history of the Anglo-Scottish clashes, relating to 1388, is captured with almost chronicle accuracy in the ballad "The Battle of Otterburn" ("The Battle of Otterbourne"). The Scots, led by the successful and fearless Douglas, make daring raids on the English borderlands. Once, in a skirmish with a detachment of the British, commanded by Percy, Douglas captured the battle flag. Percy vowed to take revenge on Douglas and return the banner. Not far from Otterburn, a fierce battle takes place between them. As in most battles of this kind, there were no winners: Douglas died and Percy was taken prisoner. But in the ballad (because it is of Scottish origin) it is stated that the victory was with the Scots.
Widely known (judging by the abundance of options in which it has come down to us) was the ballad "The Hunting of the Cheviot Hills" ("The Hunting of Cheviot", in the later edition of "Chevy Chase"), the main characters of the ballad are still the same Douglas and Percy . The latter once hunted near the Cheviot Hills, located along the ever-changing line of the Anglo-Scottish border. Douglas felt that Percy had invaded his domain and decided to defend his rights. Another fierce battle ensued: Douglas died, Percy died. The news of the death of glorious heroes reached London and Edinburgh. "The Scots no longer have such military leaders as: Douglas," the Scottish king sighed. "There were no better warriors in my kingdom than Percy," said the English king. And, with the logic inherent in those times, he gathered the army belonging to the narrator, the final military and moral victory was asserted either by the British or by the Scots.
Along with the "Hunting at the Cheviot Hills" in the XIV-XV centuries. other ballads connected with the border strip between England and Scotland were also known; most of them are dedicated to the same bloody raids, battles, struggles and are just as epic in nature. Such, for example, is the "Battle of Garlo" (The battle of Hag1aw). In most other historical ballads, the events of the 15th century, the Anglo-French wars, the feudal feuds of the English barons, etc. are meant. All these events were idealized, epic generalizations, the influence of traditional song legend. Wandering epic motifs were attached to some of them; some have been subjected, perhaps even to book influences.In the ballad "The Conquest of France by King Henry V" (King Henru the Fifth's Conquest of Fganse), for example, there is a motif also known from the legends of Alexander the Great: the French king does not pay attention to Henry's threats and; to caustically emphasize youth and inexperience in battles, sends him three balls instead of tribute; exactly the same is told in the pseudo-Kallisthenian "Alexandria" about Tsar Darius, who sends several children's toys to Alexander along with a mocking letter.
Some clashes between the English and the Scots, long since effaced in popular memory and insignificant in themselves, served as the basis for such ballads as "Kinmont Billy", "Katherine Johnston" (Katherine Johnston), "Lady Maesri" (Lady Maisry) and a number of others. The deep causes of the clashes between the English and the Scots are not touched by the nameless authors of the ballads, but they were hardly clear to them. In their minds, each collision had its own separate and only reason: someone wandered off to hunt in the wrong forest, someone kidnapped the bride, someone just wanted to "amuse the right hand" and made a robbery raid on a nearby neighbor, etc. .
Perhaps the greatest poetic charm was preserved by those ballads that tell not about military exploits, but about their sad consequences for human destinies. Remarkable in this regard is the ballad "Bold George Campbell" (Bonnie George Campbell). A young and brave young man goes to fight for no one knows why and no one knows where (however, according to the general mood of the ballad, it is not difficult to guess that we are talking about the same Anglo-Scottish border). But soon the horse returns without a rider:
High upon Highlands
And low upon Tay,
Bonnie George Cambell
Ride out on a day.
saddled and bred
And gallant rade he;
Hame cam his guid horse,
But never cam he.
The mother weeps bitterly, the bride cries. But such is the fate of women on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border. One of the most celebrated Scottish ballads, A boardeline widow, is also devoted to this theme.
Among the heroic-historical ballads that have an epic character are the ballads about Robin Hood, which were most popular for many centuries. Robin Hood with his retinue of dashing people, an "outlaw" - (outlaw) and enemy of the feudal lords, but a friend and protector of the poor, widows and orphans, became a beloved folk hero. He is sung in a large number of ballads, which make up one of the most important cycles, which is represented by four dozen separate works that tell about the various adventures of the hero and his comrades.
Robin Hood was at the head of hundreds of free shooters, who were powerless to cope with government units. He and his gang robbed only the rich, spared and rewarded the poor, did no harm to women; the deeds and adventures of this man “all Britain sings in their songs” (“The Ballads of Robin Hood”, 1987).
In their early development, the Robin Hood ballads did not provide a coherent account of his life; they told only about some of his adventures. A large place in them was occupied primarily by stories about the formation of his squad. Many ballads are based on a simple plot scheme: some craftsman, for example, a tanner, boilermaker, potter, or forest ranger, at the behest of the king, sheriff, or on his own impulse, tries to capture Robin Hood as an outlaw, fights with him, but, having experienced his strength and courage, voluntarily, joins his retinue. Thus begins Robin's acquaintance and friendship with the most faithful of his comrades and assistants - "Little John" (Little John), a daring and strong man, whose nickname - "little", "small" - is ironic, since he is seven feet tall. A dashing fight begins Robin Hood's friendship with the defrocked monk, brother Tuck, who does not take off his cassock, even joining the squad of daring men, and does not use other weapons in battles with enemies, except for his weighty club. The ballads also name other members of the squad (Scath-locke, Mutch, etc.), who freely and cheerfully live in Sherwood Forest. They are united by hatred for the feudal lords and all oppressors of the people.
In many ballads, one can recognize the features of this particular time - the anti-feudal moods of the peasant masses, acute hatred of the highest church authorities, provincial administration, etc. The socio-historical situation of the 15th century, with outbreaks of peasant uprisings, feudal wars, growing military taxes, etc. etc., contributes to the further development of the same legends, finally crystallizes them, completes the process of epic idealization of the main character.
Generous, generous, courageous persecutor of all injustice, Robin Hood gives a helping hand to everyone who needs it; he is tireless, dexterous, skillfully eludes all the traps that lie in wait for him, runs away from any pursuit, knows how to get out of any trouble and take good revenge on his enemies.
The story of Robin Hood has left a noticeable mark in world fiction. In England, Shakespeare's contemporaries: Robert Green, Mondey and Chetl processed ballad motifs in their dramatic works. These ballads have been known in Russian literature since the 1930s; some of them exist in Russian translations by N. Gumilyov, V. Rozhdestvensky and others.
Ballads dedicated to love and having a lyric-dramatic character make up the largest group among all ballad cycles. They tell about the sorrows of love, about the innumerable dangers and obstacles that lay in wait for lovers in those distant times. It would probably be possible to group love plots on the basis of an equal kind of misfortunes and obstacles. There would be a fair list: feuds between Scots and English, feuds between clans, feuds between families, feuds within families, jealousies, envy, kidnappings, misunderstandings. Many ballads sound tragic, for example, in “Annie of Loch Royan”.
... A young woman hurries to her lover, the father of her child, but she is not allowed into the castle: her lover is sleeping and does not hear the call, and his mother drives the young woman away. She sets off on her way back and dies in the depths of the sea along with her child. Sensing something unkind, the father hurries to the seashore… the raging surf brings the corpse of his beloved to his feet.
Perhaps the consciousness of the impossibility of happy love in those years poisoned by blood and hatred gave rise to numerous motives for otherworldly love. In the ballad “Billy” (“Billy”), unconditional and unshakable fidelity was affirmed, which even death cannot shake. This, apparently, the most important idea of love and fidelity for the moral consciousness of that era, is realized in English and Scottish ballads not only in fantastic plots, but also quite real ones, in some cases supplemented by a symbolic ending. Thus ends the plot of love and fidelity in the already mentioned ballad “Lady Maisry” (“Lady Maisry”, William throws herself into the fire to die like his beloved) or in the ballad “Clyde waters” (“Clyde waters”, the girl throws herself into water that killed her beloved, to perish with him).
In the ballads "Edward" (Edward), "Prince Robert" ("Prince Robert"), "Lady Isabel" ("Lady Isabel") women are not inferior to men in hatred, enmity or revenge; ballads depict an evil mother, stepmother, wife, mistress, mad with envy, jealousy, despair.
In some old ballads, the motif of conscious or unconscious incest is often found, perhaps an echo of song plots from the era of ancient tribal relations, such as in the ballad "Sheath and Knife" (Sheath and Knife) and "Lizi Wen" (Lizie Wan).
Tragedies of jealousy are frequent in ballads. But even stronger than jealousy is the feeling of spontaneous, endless love, which delivers not only boundless grief, but also the greatest happiness. In the ballad "Child Waters" (Child Waters), to which Byron refers in the preface to "Child Harold", Ellen follows her lover, disguised as a page, endures all the hardships of the campaign, guards and cleans his horse, is ready to accept even his new mistress and make a bed for her; at night, in the stable, in terrible agony, abandoned and ridiculed, she gives birth to a baby, and then only her love is rewarded: Waters marries her. If fate haunts those who love until the end of their lives, then they unite behind the grave; the symbol of love, which knows no barriers even in death itself, becomes a rose, wild rose or other flowers that grow on their graves and intertwine with their branches.
Thus, most ballads have an ominous flavor and end in a fatal outcome. The drama of the situation and dialogues, the lyrical excitement reach great tension here. Feelings of revenge, jealousy and love rage in the hearts of the characters; blood flows in torrents; follies, crimes, murders are as frequent as the lyrical ups and downs of the greatest, completely captivating love.
In most people's minds, a ballad is almost synonymous with devilry: supernatural events pile up here one on top of the other, coffins are torn off their chains, ghosts scurry through castles, forests and glades are inhabited by goblin and fairies, the waters are teeming with mermaids. These representations, inspired by the romantic literary ballad, do not fully correspond to the actual content of the folk ballad. Of the more than 300 English and Scottish folk ballads currently known, hardly 50 - that is, about one in six - contain supernatural events.
It is rather difficult to explain this, given that the medieval consciousness was literally permeated with faith in miracles and accepted the existence of devils, brownies and goblin as a self-evident element of everyday life.
Mythologism as a worldview is preserved only in the most ancient ballads, as well as in ballads, where their archaic basis emerges in one form or another. used as a poetic device or for allegorical purposes.
In the ballad "The Boy and the Cloak" (The Boy and the Cloak) magic motifs - a mantle that has the miraculous property of detecting a woman's infidelity; the head of a boar, against which the braggart's knife breaks; a magic horn spilling wine on a coward's dress - all this is used by the nameless author of the ballad for a more vivid and convincing moral assessment of real human vices.
Especially often, magical motifs are used as an extended poetic metaphor in stories about the test of loyalty, courage, and nobility. In the ballad The Young Templane, the hero's bride, true to her love, courageously goes through difficult trials.
The test of the moral qualities of the heroes can be not only purely physical suffering, but also moral suffering associated with negative aesthetic emotions. For example, the noble Evain had to go through such trials, who saved the girl, whom the evil stepmother turned into an ugly beast (“Knight Evain” - The Knight Avain). A peculiar version of the fantastic motif of the "test of fidelity" is also the story of the bride following her beloved to the grave. Another variation of the same motive is plots where, in response to the call of a woman (usually a mermaid), a man with boundless courage rushes after her into the depths of the sea (ballad "Mermaid" - Kemp Oweyne).
It is fantastic ballads that will attract the attention of European romantics, including English ones (Coleridge, Southey, Scott), who will bring them to the fore among the entire ballad heritage; however, in the heyday of ballad creativity, fabulous, fantastic ballads do not occupy such an exclusive place and their fantasy does not bear an ominous imprint.
In the popular mind, the tragic and the comic always go hand in hand. In the funniest comic stories, it is not uncommon to find hidden elements of tragedy. It is pointless to find out which ballads - tragic or comic sounding - appeared earlier: the origins of both are lost in the depths of time and are practically inaccessible to rigorous research. They probably appeared almost simultaneously, although, perhaps, in a different social environment. The point of view is hardly fair, according to which comic ballads appeared much later than tragic ones, in the course of ballad evolution towards "simplification" of plots and the penetration of everyday elements into them. Everyday details are also characteristic of the earliest ballads; the fact that people were able to see the funny and laugh at all times is evidenced by numerous comedies, satires, fables, comic songs, medieval farces and fables.
Take, for example, the famous "Ballad of the Miller and His Wife". The game's comic dialogue is clearly farcical in nature. The tipsy miller, returning home in the evening, is still not so drunk as not to notice some signs of his wife's infidelity: men's boots with copper spurs, a raincoat, etc. But the lively and crafty "hostess" is by no means inclined to give up and with enviable resourcefulness tries to dissuade the "master" of his suspicions. But even the miller is not a fool: in every explanation of his wife, not without humor, he finds some detail that destroys all her ingenious constructions; and finally, the miller discovers a man in bed.
Equally comical is the dialogue between husband and wife in the ballads Get up and Bar the Door, The Old Cloak, or the dialogue between a knight and a peasant girl in the ballad Deceived knight".
Comic ballads are diverse in content and are by no means confined to everyday subjects. They affect the social sphere, complex psychological relationships between people, love topics ("The Tramp", "The Shepherd's Son", "A Trip to the Fair"). In a number of ballads, which in terms of content it would be wrong to classify as "purely" comic, the comic element is nevertheless unusually strong ("The King and the Bishop", "Two Wizards", etc.)
"Features of the ballad genre and its development in European literature of the 18th - 19th centuries".
The word "ballad" comes from the French "ballade", and then, in turn, from the late Latin "ballo" - "I dance." The ballad genre developed in the Middle Ages. Initially, this was the name of the folk dance song; then ballads about crimes, bloody feuds, unhappy love and orphanhood became widespread. The development of ballad plots went in two main directions: plots of a heroic-historical nature turned out to be extremely productive; in parallel, they developed plots related to love themes. In fact, there was no clear line between these two groups. Heroic and love stories were often intertwined, absorbed fabulous folklore motifs, sometimes interpreted in a comic way, acquiring some specific features associated with the place of origin or existence of a particular ballad.
Heroic ballads were formed when the times of myths, legends, epic heroes receded into the distant past. Heroic ballads are based on specific historical events that can be traced to a greater or lesser extent in each of them, which gives the right to call them heroic-historical.
Ballads of love made up the largest group. Are they only about love? Rather, about love sorrows, innumerable dangers and obstacles that lay in wait for lovers at every step in those distant times.
Such was the ballad in the Middle Ages. With the development of other literary genres, the ballad faded into the background and was not widely popular.
In the 18th century there is a revival of this genre. The reason for this was the amazing lyricism and plasticity of the ballad: it combines the historical, legendary, terrible, mysterious, fantastic, funny. Perhaps that is why S. Coleridge, G. Burger, F. Schiller, I.V. Goethe, R. Burns, W. Scott, A. Mickiewicz. These writers not only revived this genre, but also found new sources for it, proposed new themes, and outlined new trends. What they were, we have to consider on the example of I.V. Goethe, F. Schiller, R. Burns and W. Scott.
The great German writer and scientist, classic of German and world literature, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 - 1832) was a great master of lyrics. Here the diversity of the poet's genius was especially clearly manifested. He mastered the most diverse forms of verse and poetic style: philosophical lyrics, folk songs; he has the ancient cycle "Roman Elegies", the eastern cycle "West-Eastern Divan". Often Goethe turned to the ballad, was the initiator of its revival.
The early Goethe ballads of the epoch of storm and onslaught (Rose of the Steppe, 1771, King of Ful, 1774, etc.) approach in style and manner to the folk song with its predominantly emotional impact and lyrical, love themes. The ballads of the transitional period (“The Fisherman”, 1778, “The Forest King”, 1782) are already somewhat moving away from the simplicity of the composition of the folk song style, but retain a common lyrical character: their themes are drawn from folklore, but used to express a modern, romantically colored sense of nature. . Ballads of a later period (“The Corinthian Bride”, “God and Bayadere”, etc. 1797) are extensive and complex narrative compositions, small poems in which a specific narrative plot becomes a typical case, embodies a general moral and philosophical idea; such classical typification and objectivity are facilitated by a high style, devoid of subjective emotional coloring, and the use of complex strophic forms as a method of metrical stylization.
In Goethe's ballads there is certainly something mysterious, instructive, scary, less often funny. Many of them are written in the tradition of a terrible gloomy ballad (for example, "The Pied Piper", "The Forest King", "The Corinthian Bride" permeate the sensations of night fears). But there are also works whose motive is the affirmation of earthly joys; neither divination nor treasure hunting will bring happiness, it is in love, in friendship, in the person himself.
Goethe's ballads combine the fantastic and the improbable, the terrible and the funny, but all this is always permeated by a clear thought, everything logically follows one from the other - and suddenly an often unexpected tragic ending. The nakedness of feelings, so characteristic of folklore works, is another important feature of Goethe's ballads.
For a long time Goethe was fond of ancient art. That is why the main sources of his ballads are ancient myths, legends and traditions. But Goethe humanizes reality, he endows even nature with real properties, using the method of forcing. Thus, a complete dramatic work is obtained, in which everything is important, and even the smallest detail plays its role.
We are familiar with Goethe's ballads from V.A. Zhukovsky, F.I. Tyutcheva, B.L. Pasternak, who managed to clearly convey the emotional mood, and the unique atmosphere, and color created by the genius of Goethe. Later, his works were translated by romantics (Venevitinov), poets of "pure art", symbolist poets.
One of the leading places is occupied by the ballad genre in the work of another German writer - Friedrich Schiller (1759 - 1805). Schiller turned to this genre at the same time as Goethe, in a number of cases his influence is felt. The writers were friendly, they published the Ory magazine together. In the process of creating ballads, constant creative communication was maintained, and in 1797 a friendly competition was arranged in writing them.
The first cycle of Schiller's ballads - "The Cup", "The Glove", "Polycrates' Ring", "Ivikov's Cranes" - was published in 1798 in the Almanac of the Muses, following the epigrams.
The writer's interest in this genre turned out to be very long. And subsequently, he repeatedly expressed his innermost thoughts in ballads. Until the end of the 90s, “Knight Togenburg”, “Walking for the Iron Hammer”, “Bail”, “Battle with the Dragon”, etc. were written.
Just like Goethe, Schiller was interested in ancient art, which was reflected in a number of poems ("Gods of Greece", 1788, "Artists", 1789) and ballads. The best of them in terms of ideological orientation and style are closely connected with his philosophical position and historical dramaturgy. They are dramatic in the development of the plot, the historical or legendary conflict reflected in them is significant. Schiller widely used in ballads such means of dramaturgy as monologue and dialogue ("Glove", "Polycrates' ring", "Cassandra"). All this gives grounds to call them "little dramas" or "dramatic episodes".
Schiller's ballads reflected his reflections on the meaning of human existence, the power of moral duty, through which he still hoped to improve social relations.
Schiller uses ancient Greek legends and stories, ancient folk legends and myths as sources.
Thus, the ballad “The Cup” (“The Diver”) is based on a German legend of the 12th century. But it is devoid of romantic motives: the reason for the death of the swimmer was supposedly his greed. Schiller, on the other hand, has a tragic theme of the struggle of a person with unequal forces.
The ballad "The Complaint of Ceres" is an adaptation of the ancient myth about the marriage of Proserpina (Greek - Persephone), the daughter of the goddess of fertility Ceres (Demeter) with Pluto, the god of the underworld (Greek - Hades). According to the myth, Proserpina leaves Pluto's domain in the spring and visits her mother: the time of her stay on earth is marked by the awakening of nature, flowering and fertility. Schiller psychologizes the myth, endows the gods with human feelings and traits, emphasizes the humanity of the motherly feeling of the goddess.
Schiller also creates ballads on the plot of medieval feudal life ("The Glove").
New - social - motives appear in Schiller's work, he seeks to solve global, universal problems: relations between people, the connection of man with nature, with art, with the outside world. There is nothing terrible and inexplicable in his ballads. However, some of them show romantic tendencies: the idea of a dual world (the world of dreams is better than the real world), the appearance of symbols, the dynamism of the development of events, and later - a departure from reality.
Among German writers, Gottfried August Bürger (1747 - 1794) also turned to the ballad genre. His "Lenora", "The Wild Hunter", "The Song of an Honest Man" and other ballads brought him European fame. Burger's main source is German folklore. So in Lenore, he masterfully uses his lyrical and fantastic motifs.
The most famous are the ballads of Schiller and Burger in the translations of V.A. Zhukovsky. He managed to preserve the "stately - epic architectonics" of Schiller's ballads and the "common folk" style of Burger.
The oldest Anglo-Scottish ballads have retained a genetic connection with the legends and tales of the tribal system. Their distinguishing feature is their focus on a single event, usually tragic and bloody. The reasons that led to this event, the circumstances that preceded it, are given only as a hint, giving the plot a touch of mystery. This construction of the plot, as well as much more, was borrowed from English and Scottish ballads by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796). His passion for old folklore began with a book by Robert Ferguson, who published a small volume of poetry in the Scottish dialect. Then Burns realized for the first time that his native language exists not only as the language of old half-forgotten ballads, but also as a real literary language. Subsequently, Burns devoted all his free time to collecting old songs and ballads. For years he participated in the creation of the multi-volume "Music Museum", restoring the most undistorted texts from a variety of oral versions and composing new words to old melodies if the texts were lost or replaced by vulgar and illiterate verses.
So Burns became one of the direct participants in the revival of rich folklore, not only as the best poet of Scotland, but also as a scientist, as a great connoisseur of her life, legends. That is why most of his works are deeply original reworkings of old songs; Burns used the plot, melody, rhythm, meter of old poems. But under his pen, weak, half-forgotten ancient stanzas and plots acquired a modern edge and were filled with new content.
So, for example, the ballad "John Barleycorn" was born, in which the idea of the immortality of the people is expressed in an allegorical form.
The ballad Tam O'Shanter is based on an anecdote about farmer Douglas Graham O'Shanter, a desperate drunkard who feared his grumpy wife more than anything in the world. Once, while Douglas was sitting in a tavern, the boys tore the tail off his horse. He noticed it only after returning home. To justify himself in the eyes of his wife, Douglas composed a story about devils and witches. This episode prompted Burns the plot of the ballad, which he himself was very fond of.
And here is an adaptation of the old Scottish folk ballad "Lord Gregory", which tells a simple story about how a handsome young lord deceived a gullible peasant woman and then left her. The ancient text of this song contains only endless sad complaints and describes the bitter tears that a deceived girl sheds. There is no action, no plot. Burns altered the old text beyond recognition: he put a passionate monologue into the mouth of the heroine - now she does not cry, but accuses. As a result of this reworking, the ballad acquired a modern sound, and the stingy, passionate and exciting speech gave it a genuine artistry.
The composition and style of Burns' works is dominated by elements of folk poetry: repetitions, refrains, beginnings ("The Tree of Freedom", "Honest Poverty"). Syncretism, a mixture of various genres, poetic sizes, and various metric lengths, are taken from folklore. At the same time, elements of dramatic poetry are more inherent in Burns's ballads: he uses dialogues and monologues, skillfully uses impersonal direct speech.
As his poetic skills improved, Burns, without abandoning folklore traditions, also turned to the creation of realistic pictures of morals: the detail begins to play an increasingly important role in his work, the analysis of the feelings of the characters is combined with the image and analysis of the social environment in which they live and act. The desire to show the characters in dynamics, in development, made us carefully consider the construction of the narrative: some ballads develop into a miniature story with a well-developed plot, well-aimed, vivid characteristics of the characters ("Tam O'Shanter").
The main theme of Burns' ballads is love, friendship, human freedom, the theme of pride of the "honest commoner". The poet most often finds true friendship, love, cordiality and sincere participation among the poor. This theme becomes a leitmotif in Burns's later ballads.
The first translations and reports about R. Burns appeared in Russian journals at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The lyrics of Burns were translated by I. Kozlov, M. Mikhailov, T. Shchepkina - Kupernik, E. Bagritsky, S. Marshak.
With the realization that the era of creating folk ballads has passed, and their existence among the people is about to stop, in England and Scotland, an intensive collection of songs and ballads began, no longer for further processing, but as independent values. However, the right to interfere in the text of a folk ballad, be it the publication of an old manuscript or a recording of an oral performance, was recognized for a long time as a principle that was quite acceptable and even desirable. Ballads were collected by scholars - literary critics, folklorists, poets and writers: Percy, Hurd, Ritson.
Walter Scott (1771 - 1831) also published folk ballads. More than once he was tempted to enhance their poetic sound. In any case, he repeatedly mentions the adjustment and combination of options in the explanations to his publications.
In addition to collecting ballads, V. Scott was also involved in their creation. But Scott's ballads are not a processing of ancient material, they are the most interesting works written in the traditions of a medieval chivalric romance. Often their plot and themes echo Scott's prose works, especially Ivanhoe. The basis of W. Scott's ballads is not only historical facts or legends, but also national Scottish folklore. Such an organic combination formed the basis of such ballads as “The Song of the Last Minstrel”, “Grey Brother” (i.e. “Gray Monk”). In many of Scott’s ballads, themes of duty, love, honor, moral and ethical themes can be traced. Thus, in "The Gray Brother" the author poses the problem of atonement for sin, earthly and heavenly.
In Scott's ballads, romanticism manifests itself quite clearly: gloomy landscapes, haunted castles appear in them, and there is romantic symbolism. According to such works, in the minds of most people, the ballad is supernatural events that pile up one on top of the other: coffins are torn off their chains, ghosts scurry through castles, forests and glades are inhabited by goblin and fairies, waters are teeming with mermaids. But these performances are inspired by a romantic ballad, and in the 18th century romanticism had not yet taken shape. Scott's work is at the turn of the century, and it is quite reasonable that it has absorbed "the current century and the past century."
The ballad genre is a traditional genre in English and Scottish literature. Later, S. Coleridge, R. Southey and others addressed him.
Obviously, the 18th century was the century of the revival of the old ballad genre. This was facilitated by the formation of national self-consciousness, and consequently the awakening of interest in folk art, its history. The revival of the ballad went through three stages:
recording and collecting ballads;
creation of their own poetic variants on their basis;
The third stage is the most interesting, since it contributed not only to the revival, but also to the development of the ballad genre. A new, broader and more relevant topic appeared, the ballad became more problematic. The ever-increasing role of the plot, the ever more complete disclosure of its potential possibilities, was precisely the path along which the development of the ballad proceeded. "Subjectivity" gradually becomes that special feature that distinguishes the ballad from other genres. It is in this sense that it is customary to speak of the ballad as a lyrical-epic form of poetry.
As the ballad genre develops, it becomes psychologized, concrete, particular, and not abstract concepts of good and evil, as among the Enlighteners, come to the fore, but the main source (antiquity) remains.
In the course of the further development of the ballad, especially as the genre of the literary ballad developed, the lyrical beginning, now strengthened by psychologism, again begins to prevail over the plot. The mixture of genres, the penetration of epic and dramatic elements into lyrical poetry unusually enriched the ballad, made it more flexible, made it possible to show the world of feelings deeper and more truthfully, which contributed to the fact that the ballad became one of the main genres of sentimentalism and romanticism.
English and German ballads become known in Russia at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At this time, the mythological images of antiquity (which would adorn Russian poetry many years later) were subjected to a powerful onslaught of the “northern muse”. Through the efforts of Karamzin and Andrei Turgenev, who died early, and then Bayushkov about Zhukovsky, the Russian reader first became acquainted with Shakespeare, and then with the pre-romantic and romantic literature of England and Germany. The motifs of German, English, Scottish ballads and legends have flowed into Russian literature like a wide river. Thanks to the translations of Pushkin, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Lermontov, the ballad genre adapted and developed on Russian soil.
Literature
1. Alekseev M.P. Folk ballads of England and Scotland // History of English literature. M.; L., 1943. T. 1. Issue. I.
2. Balashov D.M. Russian folk ballad//Folk ballads. M.; L., 1963.
3. Gasparov M.L. Ballad // Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1987.
4. Levin Yu.D. "Poems of Ossian" by James Macpherson // Macpherson D. Poems of Ossian. L., 1983.
5. Literary manifestos of Western European romantics / Comp. and before. A.S. Dmitriev. M., 1980.
6. Smirnov Yu.I. East Slavic ballads and related forms. Experience index plots and versions. M., 1988.
7. Aeolian harp. Ballad Anthology: Language Student's Library. M., Higher school. 1989.
In the modern world, it is not particularly popular and is something very unusual and refined. This is largely because this form of storytelling is very complex and requires skill and real talent from the author. It is very easy for a person familiar with the literary world to explain what a ballad is.
folklore chant
A ballad is a lyrical work with an epic plot. This form of narration gives the writer the opportunity to use a large number of expressive means, enhance the emotionality of the text with the help of alliteration and assonance, emphasize the beauty of the character's direct speech using beautiful rhymes. Most often, the plot of ballads is associated with folklore, some kind of heroic stories and legends. It is not uncommon to come across songs with the title "Ballad of a Hero", "Ballad of a Warrior" and the like. It is always assumed that the ballad can be set to music, so it is read almost in a singsong voice. Ideally, the ballad to which the music is written should contain a large number of assonances for the softest sound.
The song flows sweetly
To understand what a ballad is, you need to read at least a small excerpt from a work of this genre. Usually ballads are not easily perceived by the modern reader, just as it is inconvenient for him to perceive any large poetic text. Attention is diverted to the form of the narration, and the events described seem to be passed "by the ears", and an unprepared reader will rather notice the beauty of the rhyme than be able to follow the details of the plot and the motives of the characters. Perhaps that is why the ballad genre is not very common, and few of the “uninitiated” know exactly what a ballad is. For most, it is associated with the literature of ancient times, when the ability to use an elevated style was a must for every author. Today, poetry has become much simpler, and this also applies to song lyrics. Much more attention is paid to the visual design of the video clip than to the textual content of the modern song. However, even now modern, modernized ballads are being born, again returning listeners to the past.
France is the birthplace of the genre
It is best to explain what a ballad is intelligibly with a specific example. We should start with French literature, since it was in France that this attractive type of literary creativity was born. It was in this state that the ballad genre appeared as a result of the abolition of the canzone in the last decades of the 13th century. We can say that the French love song "evolved" into something more serious and deep, into a style with a more complex form and extensive content. One of the very first ballads in France was created by La Fontaine, known throughout the world for his immortal fables. His ballads were quite simple in content and form, so later they were mercilessly criticized by more experienced and sophisticated ballad writers. The same moods, the same properties that Lafontaine's fables had, the writer transferred to his ballads. A good example of a French, almost contemporary ballad is Victor Hugo's La ballade de la nonne. His skill in writing works of this genre once again confirms the skill of the writer.
Ballads of Foggy Albion
The ballad genre was also widespread in England. It is believed that the genre itself was brought to the lands by the Norman conquerors. On the territory of England, the ballad acquired even more serious features, began to touch on gloomy topics and significantly changed in mood. Who knows, maybe the fog did its job. At first, the British sang Odin, and then smoothly moved on to the theme of the exploits of Scottish heroes. In these ballads, the national flavor of this country is very clearly observed, which cannot be confused with anything else. Few people have not heard the story of Robin Hood, the prince of thieves who robs the rich and gives the loot to the poor. The British also composed ballads about him. English literary works in the ballad genre also deal extensively with the theme of the adventures of King Arthur and his knights. Even now, it is not difficult to imagine how tired heroes sit comfortably around the fire, take lutes and sing ballads to each other about the search for the Holy Grail and the magic of the great Merlin Ambrosius.
Harsh German ballads
Like the British, ballads also preferred gloominess and seriousness, so German ballads are distinguished by a heavy atmosphere. The best ballads in Germany were created in the heyday of romanticism. In this genre, such as Gottfried August Burger and Heinrich Heine tried their pen. The German character of these authors can be traced even in such a refined literary work as a ballad. Goethe's ballad called "Der Erlkönig" is very famous. There are several translations of this title, but "King of the Elves" is the most commonly seen. The plot of this ballad is very sad and almost stereotypically severe in German. The ballad describes the death of a young boy, presumably at the hands of this same elf king. At the same time, it is impossible to say for sure that the ballad has a mystical character. It is possible that the boy was dying of an illness, and he simply dreamed of supernatural beings in a fever.
Ballads of the present
The definition of the ballad genre today is somewhat blurred. In modern times, this literary genre has become lighter and simplified, but has not lost its authenticity. Examples of such works, or at least songs similar to a ballad, can be found all the time in the work of folk groups. For example, the bands Fleur and Melnitsa sometimes use the word "ballad" directly in their songs, which makes them sound more romantic and refined. Sometimes ballads are heard in films on historical or heroic themes, and sometimes you can hear them in computer games. The best example of this is the relatively new game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where bards sing beautiful ballads about local heroes and conquerors. A literary genre with such beauty is unlikely to ever completely lose its relevance.
