Scott, by his store of historic anecdote in his
introductions and notes, by his way of vivifying the past, and by his
method of editing, revived, but did not create, the interest in the
romance of ballad poetry.
It had always existed. We all know Sidney's words on "The Douglas
and the Percy"; Addison's on folk-poetry; Mr. Pepys' ballad
collection; the ballads in Tom Durfey's and other miscellanies; Allan
Ramsay's Evergreen; Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry; Herd's
ballad volumes of 1776; Evans' collections; Burns' remakings of old
songs; Ritson's publications, and so forth. But the genius of Burns,
while it transfigured many old songs, was not often exercised on old
narrative ballads, and when Scott produced The Minstrelsy, the taste
for ballads was confined to amateurs of early literature, and to
country folk.
Sir Walter's method of editing, of presenting his traditional
materials, was literary, and, usually, not scientific. A modern
collector would publish things--legends, ballads, or folk-tales--
exactly as he found them in old broadsides, or in MS.
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