▪ I. ballad, n.
(ˈbæləd)
Forms: 4–6 balade, 5 balaade, -adde, 6 balat(e, -ette, ballat, -att, -ed, -ete, -ette, -ytte, 6–7 ballet, ballade, 7– (Sc.) ballant, 6– ballad.
[ME. balade, a. OF. balade (mod. ballade) dancing-song, ad. Pr. balada dance, dancing-song, f. balar:—late L. ballāre to dance: cf. bale v.1 In 16th and 17th c. the termination -ad was commonly changed into the more familiar -at(e, -et (cf. salad, sallet), and this in Sc. further corrupted to -ant. Cf. ballet n.1, the adoption of which has probably tended to restore the spelling ballad, and the revived form ballet n.3 The primitive meaning of dance was in Pr. and It., but the word was adopted in Fr. and Eng. only in transferred senses. See also ballade.]
† 1. A song intended as the accompaniment to a dance; the tune to which the song is sung. Obs.
| c 1500 Dunbar Gold. Targe 129 And sang ballettis with michty notis clere: Ladyes to dance full sobirly assayit. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 39 These balades and roundes, these galiardes, pauanes and daunces. 1549 Olde Erasm. Par. Eph. v. 19 That can stirre vs, not to wanton dauncynges or folyshe ballettes. a 1616 B. Jonson Love Rest. 12 Unlesse we should come in like a Morrice-dance, and whistle our ballat our selves. |
2. A light, simple song of any kind; now
spec. a sentimental or romantic composition of two or more verses, each of which is sung to the same melody, the musical accompaniment being strictly subordinate to the air.
| 1492 in Michelet Scot. Lang. 218 For the singyn of a ballat to the King. c 1500 Mayd Emlyn in Poet. Tracts (1842) 16 We do nought togyder, But prycked balades synge. 1521 State Papers Hen. VIII, I. 10 Mr. Almoner, in hys sermone, broght in the balates off ‘Passe tyme with goodde cumpanye,’ and ‘I love unlovydde.’ 1568 Bible (Bishops') title, The Ballet of Ballets of Solomon. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xx, Ballades of praise called Encomia. 1664–5 Pepys Diary 2 Jan., I occasioned much mirth by a ballet I brought with me, made from the seamen at sea to their ladies in town [i.e. Ld. Dorset's ‘To all you Ladies’]. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 244 No more the woodman's ballad shall prevail. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. v. i, She is singing an air that is known to me, A passionate ballad gallant and gay. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 129/2 At the present time a ballad in music is generally understood to be a sentimental or romantic composition of a simple and unpretentious character, having two or more verses of poetry, but with the melody or tune complete in the first, and repeated for each succeeding verse. 1898 A. Bennett Man from North xxi. 191 The song was a mediocre drawing-room ballad. 1906 ― Whom God hath Joined x. 367 The power of the drawing-room ballad rendered by a few fiddlers in the warm obscurity of an August evening. 1927 Melody Maker Aug. 768 (Advt.), ‘Morning’, Fox-trot Ballad by Pat Thayer. 1965 New Statesman 9 Apr. 586/1 Miss Staton has no special gift for the pocket one-woman song-drama which is (under the name ‘ballad’) the basis of the night-club repertoire. |
† 3. A popular song; often
spec. one celebrating or scurrilously attacking persons or institutions. (The ‘ballad’ in this and
prec. sense was often printed as a broadsheet.)
Obs.| 1556 Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 57 Many ballyttes made of dyvers partys agayne the blyssyd sacrament. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 52, I will haue it in a particular Ballad, with my owne Picture on the top of it. 1602 Ret. fr. Parnass. i. ii. (Arb.) 10 Who makes a ballet for an ale-house doore. 1704 A. Fletcher (of Saltoun) Acct. Conversation 9 Tempted to all manner of Lewdness by infamous Ballads sung in every corner of the Streets..I know 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. 1727 Swift Furth. Acct. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 160 Resolved, That a ballad be made against Mr. Pope. 1782 Burney Hist. Mus. II. iv. 343 note, The English Ballad has long been..confined to a low species of Song. 1825 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. I. 2 A beuk of old ballants as yellow as the cowslips. |
† 4. A proverbial saying, usually in form of a couplet; a posy. (
Cf. L.
cantilena.)
Obs.| 1528 More Heresyes i. Wks. 177/1 Than haue we well walked after the balade: The further I goo the more behynde. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 54 Spend, and god shall send..saith tholde ballet. 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. iii. 63 For I the Ballad will repeate, which men full true shall finde, your marriage comes by destinie, your Cuckow sings by kinde. |
5. A simple spirited poem in short stanzas, originally a ‘ballad’ in sense 3, in which some popular story is graphically narrated. (This sense is esentially modern: with Milton, Addison, and even Johnson, the idea of
song was present.)
| [1670 Milton Hist. Eng. v. Wks. (1851) 226 The song..(for..he refus'd not the autority of Ballats for want of better). 1712 Addison Spect. No. 70 ¶3 The old Song of Chevy-Chase is the favourite Ballad of the common People of England.] 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 177 ¶9 Cantilenus turned all his thoughts upon old ballads..He offered to shew me a copy of the Children in the Wood. 1783 Cowper Lett. 3 Aug., The ballad is a species of poetry, I believe, peculiar to this country..simplicity and ease are its proper characteristics. 1817 Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves, The Bard..who made The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence. 1858 Longfellow Children, Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said; For ye are our living poems, And all the rest are dead. 1870 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 85 The highest form of ballad requires from a poet at once narrative power, lyrical, and dramatic. 1872 Buckle Misc. Wks. I. 161 All history is at first poetry, i.e. ballads. |
6. Comb. a. attrib., as
ballad-form,
ballad-lore,
ballad-measure,
ballad-poetry,
ballad-rime (1447),
ballad-stanza,
ballad-stuff,
ballad-tune;
b. objective
gen. with
vbl. or agent-noun, as
ballad-making (1505),
ballad-singing,
ballad-composer,
ballad-maker (1586),
ballad-reciter,
ballad-singer,
ballad-writer,
ballad-monger. Also
ballad concert, a concert devoted mainly to ballads (sense 2);
ballad-farce,
-opera, a play into which popular songs are introduced;
ballad-wise adv., in the manner of a ballad, in song.
| 1947 A. Einstein Mus. in Romantic Era vi. 58 Carl Loewe, Schubert's rival as a *ballad-composer. |
| 1868 Times 23 Mar. 12/6 The admirable London *Ballad Concerts of Mr. John Boosey are still drawing crowds. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 129/2 ‘Ballad concerts’..often contain songs of all kinds. 1903 Daily Chron. 21 Mar. 8/4 A Concert Diary. Mar. 21.—London Ballad Concert, Queen's Hall. |
| 1747 T. Whincop Scanderbeg 185/1 Betty, or The Country Bumpkins, a *Ballad-Farce, acted..at the Theatre in Drury-lane, 1738. 1787 Sir J. Hawkins Johnson 198 (Jod.) An impatience for pantomimes and ballad-farces. |
| 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. (1875) 210 A *ballad-form which has more rapidity and grace. |
| 1902 Q. Rev. Oct. 478 The wind-riding Erlking of German *ballad-lore. |
| 1586 Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 36 The vncountable rabble of ryming *Ballet-makers. 1667 Dryden & Duke of Newcastle Martin Mar-all (1668) v. 55 You mistake me for Martin Parker, the Ballad-Maker. 1815 Scott Guy M. xli, The devil take all ballads, and ballad-makers, and ballad-singers! |
| c 1505 Dunbar Lament for Makaris 60 Fra *balat making et trigide. |
| 1775 Ann. Reg. 40/2 He wrote it in *ballad measure. |
| 1779 Johnson L.P. Wks. 1816 X. 218 We owe to Gay the *Ballad-Opera. |
| 1863 Burton Bk. Hunter 300 That delightful department of literature, our *ballad poetry. |
| 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys 60, What best plesyth me I have as I can declaryd in latyn In *balaade ryme. |
| 1598 Florio Worlde of Wordes 57/3 Cantinbanco, a mountibanke, a *ballad-singer. 1682 London Gaz. No. 1712, 13–17 Apr., Mr. John Clarke..did rent of Charles Killigrew Esq; the Licencing of all Ballad-Singers. 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4370/4 Israel Sewell..a professyd Ballad-singer. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ii, Ballad-singers brayed, Auctioneers grew hoarse. |
| 1934 Ess. & Stud. XIX. 102 The stanza, not itself a *ballad-stanza, of The Dark Ladie. |
| 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie 194 Then hence base *ballad stuffe. |
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 65 This was done in *ballade wise..and was song very sweetely. |
| 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages II. xvii. 200 The *ballad-writers of after-times. |
▪ II. ˈballad, v. ?
Obs. Forms: 6–7
ballat, 7
balett, 8
ballet, 7–
ballad.
[f. prec. n.; cf. OF. balader.] 1. intr. To write or compose ballads.
| 1592 G. Harvey Four Lett. 5 But who..like Elderton for ballating, Greene for pamfletting? c 1600 Donne Juvenilia i. (1633) B, Enuious Libellers ballad against them [women]. |
2. trans. To make (a person) the subject of ballads, or popular songs, especially scurrilous ones.
| 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 216 And scald Rimers [will] Ballad vs out a Tune. 1636 Heywood Challenge ii. i. Wks. 1874 V. 23, I shall be Ballated, Sung up and downe by minstrills. 1721 Southern Disappointm. iii. i. 107 Stag'd to the crowd..Nay, balleted about the streets in rhime. |