Under this head are grouped a number of short poems, representing forms
of composition that survive only by fortunate chance.
A is a curious little song, which has been printed from Hale MS. 135 by
G. E. Woodbine in _Modern Language Review_, vol. iv, p. 236, and
reconstructed by Skeat at vol. v, p. 105, of the same periodical.
B and C are the best-known lyrics of the important collection edited by
Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harley 2253_, Berlin 1878.
They are literary and rather artificial in form.
D and E are minstrels' songs found, among other popular snatches, on a
fly-leaf of Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913, and edited by Heuser in
_Anglia_, vol. xxx, p. 173. In E lines 14-16 and ll. 17-19 are to be
expanded on the model of ll. 7-13.
All these songs are early, and have a lightness and gaiety that become
rare as the fourteenth century advances.
F is one of several English scraps (ed. Furnivall in _Political,
Religious, and Love Poems_, E.E.T.S., pp. 249 ff.) that are found
scattered through the Latin text of MS. Harley 7322. Most of the English
pieces are without poetical merit, but in this one poem the writer has
attained a perfect simplicity.
G, printed in Wright and Halliwell's _Reliquiae Antiquae_, 1845, vol. i,
p. 144, has been recognized as the first of the English ballads. It is
the only example before 1400 of the swift and dramatic movement, the
sudden transitions, and the restrained expression, characteristic of the
ballad style.
H, first printed in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, p. 240, is the latest
of the short pieces. With onomatopoeic effects it gives a vivid if
unfriendly picture of a blacksmith's forge on a busy night.
I is a charm edited by Furnivall at p. 43 of the E.E.T.S. volume in
which F appears.