The Cause

Abstract

The letters reproduced here represent the bulk of the ninteenth century correspondence between Francis James Child, Harvard professor of English, and William Macmath, a Scottish legal clerk, about Child’s project: a “critical edition” of the “popular” ballads of the English speaking world. The five volume work, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, was published between 1882 and 1898. The letters reveal Child’s scholarly understanding of his subject, his personal research approach, his many uncertainties—and certainties, his methodical and persistent approaches—his focus and intensity. Above all, they lay bare the procedures he was following for doing his work as editor-in-chief. Too few of his letters have been made available; thus, the extent of his epistolary research has not been obvious to users of his work. The letters also fully reveal Macmath’s enormous contribution to Child’s work and add his name to the list of important nineteenth century ballad scholars. Macmath tilted Child’s work toward Scottish materials, introduced the focus on the historicity of various ballads, stressed the importance of acknowledging reciters, revealed his textual discoveries—most particularly his research at Abbotsford--and his copious corrections and suggestions. This correspondence should serve as a resource for future research.