One Hundred & One Ballades.

MACKINTOSH, H.S.; Winifred Agar; Sidney Allnut; Maurice Baring; Hilaire Belloc; E.C. Bentley; Cecil Chesterton; Geoffrey Howard; Diggory King; Theodore Maynard; J.B. Morton; J.S. Phillimore; T. Michael Pope; C.K. Scott-Moncrieff; J.C. Squire; R. Weatherhead; Louis Wharton.

$125.00

Item Number: 147098

London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1931.

First edition, second printing of this collection of narrative poetry, some of which appear for the first time here. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with engravings by John Nash. Presentation copy, inscribed by H.S. Mackintosh, “To Miss S. Fraser-Luckis from H.S. Mackintosh. September 1937.” In very good condition with some toning to the spine and light rubbing to the extremities.

Promoted as "dancing songs," the ballade originated as one of the three original French formes fixes. The verse form typically consists of three eight-line stanzas, each with a consistent metre, a particular rhyme scheme and a refrain at the end of each stanza. The form later evolved into the popular narrative "ballad" of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century, which took on the romantic context of the love song.