261. Merry it is, etc. Scott says: "This little fairy tale is founded
upon a very curious Danish ballad which occurs in the Kaempe Viser, a
collection of heroic songs first published in 1591, and reprinted
in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the collector and editor, to
Sophia, Queen of Denmark."
The measure is the common ballad-metre, the basis of which is a line
of eight syllables followed by one of six, the even syllables accented,
with the alternate lines rhyming, so as to form a four-line stanza. It
is varied by extra unaccented syllables, and by rhymes within the longer
lines (both of which modifications we have in 263 and 271), and by
"double rhymes" (like singing and ringing).