Ballads Quotes

“Border ballads”

“For a ballad's a thing you expect to find lies in.”

“A famous man is Robin Hood,
The English ballad-singer's joy.”

“Some people resemble ballads which are only sung for a certain time.”

“Ballad”

“ballad”

“Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes sung ballads from a cart.”

“I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew!
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.”

“More solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels.”

“I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.”

“I knew a very wise man that believed that * * * if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.”

“I have a passion for ballads. * * * They are the gypsy children of song, born under green hedgerows in the leafy lanes and bypaths of literature,—in the genial Summertime.”

“The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And I met with a ballad, I can't say where,
That wholly consisted of lines like these.”

“I've now got the music book ready,
Do sit up and sing like a lady
A recitative from Tancredi,
And something about "Palpiti!"
Sing forte when first you begin it,
Piano the very next minute,
They'll cry "What expression there's in it!"
Don't sing English ballads to me!”