p Sorry that should be p231.
At p 232 'Child committed his explicit conclusions about the ballad to print in 1874, in an article 'Ballad Poetry' published in Johnson's Universal Encyclopaedia. Gummere much later considered this a 'provisional statement....it was not final and he wished it to be neither quoted nor regarded as final'. This would have been after finishing ESB and starting ESPB. He learnt a great deal more whilst compiling ESPB so I would agree with Gummere on this point.


Brown concludes, and I concur, the best statements and thoughts on what constituted the ballad are in ESPB itself and in his correspondence much of which has been published. Two significant writers to look out for are Brown and Emily Lyle.

Regarding what Child's pupils had to say, Gummere became embroiled in a discredited thesis on the origins, shot down in flames quite early on (though as Jim often says we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater) and Kittredge was completely overtaken by having to spend the rest of his life putting Child's legacy into some sort of order.