But these plots
and situations, in Epic and Romance, are themselves the final
literary form of marchen, myths and inventions originally POPULAR,
and still, in certain cases, extant in popular form among races
which have not yet evolved, or borrowed, the ampler and more
polished and complex genres of literature. Thus, when a literary
romance and a ballad have the same theme, the ballad may be a
popular degradation of the romance; or, it may be the original
popular shape of it, still surviving in tradition. A well-known
case in prose, is that of the French fairy tales.
Perrault, in 1697, borrowed these from tradition and gave them
literary and courtly shape. But Cendrillon or Chaperon Rouge in
the mouth of a French peasant, is apt to be the old traditional
version, uncontaminated by the refinements of Perrault, despite
Perrault's immense success and circulation. Thus tradition
preserves pre-literary forms, even though, on occasion, it may
borrow from literature. Peasant poets have been authors of
ballads, without being, for all that, professional minstrels. Many
such poems survive in our ballad literature.
The material of the ballad may be either romantic or historical.
The former class is based on one of the primeval invented
situations, one of the elements of the Marchen in prose. Such
tales or myths occur in the stories of savages, in the legends of
peasants, are interwoven later with the plot in Epic or Romance,
and may also inspire ballads.
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