ABSTRACT
The folk-song is a song, that is, a lyric poem with melody, which originated anonymously, among unlettered folk in times past and which remained in currency for a considerable time, as a rule for centuries. In consequence, the new form, powerfully reinforced as it was by the printing press and besides, no doubt, of greater artistic value, little by little completely crowded out the old folk-song, which thus disappeared. It is equally clear that a considerable number of songs considered now old folk-songs have in all probability a literary origin, of which no trace has been preserved. The diffusion of folk-songs and popular songs is even more easy than the diffusion of tales; the melody gives it wings as it were, and even national and linguistic boundaries offer no unconquerable obstacle. Folklorists must next take up the various categories of folk-songs which have been known, with more or less completeness, to exist in historical times.
