The Words ‘Laughter’ and ‘Laugh’ in a selection of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads


Abstract

This paper wittily addresses the theme of laughing and laughter in eight ballads selected from Volume 1 of Gutenberg's three volume collection of English and Scottish Popular Ballads, including Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, The Cruel Brothers, The Boy and the Mantle, The Laidley Worm, Clark Colven, The Broomfield Hill, King John and the Bishop and Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship, with a variety of other intertextual references. Drawing simultaneously on the two most comprehensive collections of English and Scottish Ballads: Francis James Child's and Steve Roud's, the paper demonstrates that laughter in ballads is "no laughing matter", and, indeed, the balladic laughter, no to be mistaken for (s)laughter, due to its social context of mediaeval times, prevails in various shades of negativity, as corroborated by Norbert Elias's sociological theory of laughter and Anca Parvulescu's study thereof. The paper provides a unique insight into the both merry and mirthless laughter prompted by a modern reading of English and Scottish folk ballads in today's cosmopolitan context.


Keywords

English Popular Ballads; Scottish Popular Ballads; merry laughter; mirthless laughter

Barker, Lynne A. “The Science of Laughter – And Why It Also Has a Dark Side.” Neuroscience News, May 12, 2017. https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-laughter-6661/.

Billig, Michael. Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. London: Sage Publications, 2005.

Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun. Fellside Recordings FECD240 (2 CD, 2011).

Colvill, Clerk [Child 42]. https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/C042.html.

Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arblay, 1778-1784, edited by Charlotte Bar-rett, 279. London: Bickers and Son, [n.d.]. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45939/45939-h/45939-h.htm.

Emrich, Duncan. “ʻFolk-lore’: William John Thoms.” California Folklore Quarterly 5, no. 4 (Oct 1946): 355–374.

Foster, Chris. All Things in Common (Topic Records, 1979), Track.

Goldstein, Kenneth G. https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/captainwedderburnscourtship.html.

Mainly Norfolk. “English Folk and Other Good Music”. Last updated: Mai 7, 2020. https://www.mainlynorfolk.info/folk/records/anaismitchell.html#childballads.

Nic Jones. “Sir Patrick Spens,” Ballads and Songs, Trailer LER2014 33rpm, track one, side one. Text: http://www.goldilox.co.uk/engfolk/lyrics/1979-L.htm.

Parvulescu, Anca. “Norbert Elias: Essay on Laughter.” Critical Enquiry 43, 2 (2017): 281–304.

Percy, Thomas. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date, vol. I (of 3). https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45939/45939-h/45939-h.htm.

Roud Folksong Index. https://www.vwml.org/searchq=patrick%20spens&collectionfilter=RoudFS;RoudBS;VWMLSongIndex;MasterIndex&is=1.

Sewell, Jane Eliot. Cesarean Section – A Brief History. Last updated: July 26, 2013. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part1.html.

Simply English. “King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.” In A Story So Mer-ry (University Press Pécs in cooperation with Nortonbury Bt., 1997), DLCD 100. Track 1.

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads edited from the Collection of Fran-cis James Child, edited by Helen Child Sargent, and George Lyman Kit-tredge. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1904.

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Francis James Child, in five volumes. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., [1882], 1965. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44969/44969-h/44969-h.htm.

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Helen Child Sargent, and George Lyman Kittredge. London: D. Nutt, 1905.

Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969.

Traditional Song and Music Resources, http://www.stewarthendrickson.com/songs/TradResources.html.

Download

Published : 2021-12-30


ROUSE, A. C. (2021). The Words ‘Laughter’ and ‘Laugh’ in a selection of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Transfer. Reception Studies, 6, 65-82. https://doi.org/10.16926/10.16926/trs.2021.06.05

Andrew C. ROUSE 
University of Pécs  Hungary