By the COUNTESS EVELYN MARTINENGO-CESARESCO.
“A pleasant volume on a pleasant topic.... The Countess, with her
sincere enthusiasm for what is simple, passionate, and sensuous in
folk-song, and with her lucid and unaffected style, well understands
the mode in which the educated collector should approach the shy
singers or story-tellers of Europe.... Her introduction is perhaps,
to the scientific student of popular culture, the best part of her
book.... Next to her introduction, perhaps her article on ‘Death in
Folk-Poetry’ is the most serviceable essay in the volume.... ‘Folk
Lullabies’ is perhaps the most pleasant of the remaining essays in
the admirable volume, a volume remarkable for knowledge, sympathy,
and good taste.”--Extracts from a page notice in the _Saturday
Review_, April 24, 1886.
“This is a very delightful book, full of information and thoughtful
suggestions. It deals principally with the Folk-songs of Southern
peoples, Venetian, Sicilian, Armenian, Provence, and Greek Songs
of Calabria, but there are several essays devoted to the general
characteristics of Folk-Poetry, such as the influence of Nature, the
Inspiration of Death, the idea of Fate, the numerous songs connected
with the rites of May, Folk-Lullabies, and Folk-Dirges. There is also
an interesting essay on what is called the White Paternoster, and
Children’s Rhyming Prayers. This is one of the most valuable, and
certainly one of the most interesting, books which have been written
on a subject which has of late years been exciting an ever-increasing
attention, and which involves many important problems connected with
the early history of the human race.”--_Standard._
“‘Folk-Songs,’ traditional popular ballads, are as tempting to me
as King Charles’s head to Mr. Dick. But interesting as the topic
of the origin and diffusion and literary merit of these poems may
be--poems much the same in all European countries--they are rather
caviare to the general. The Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco is, or
should be, a well-known authority among special students of this
branch of literature, to whom I heartily commend her ‘Essays in
the Study of Folk-Songs.’ The Countess is, perhaps, most familiar
with Southern _volksleider_, as of Greece, Italy, and Sicily. Her
book is a treasure-house of Folk-lore of various kinds, and the
matter is handled with much poetic appreciation and a good deal of
learning.”--_Daily News._
“A kind of popular introduction to the study of Folk-lore.”--_St.
James’s Gazette._
_About 500 pages, crown 8vo., cloth, price 10s. 6d._