Editing Ballad (section)

==Transmission==
[[File:Scott's Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border.JPG|thumb|[[Walter Scott|Walter Scott's]] ''[[Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border]]'']]
The transmission of ballads comprises a key stage in their re-composition. In romantic terms this process is often dramatized as a narrative of degeneration away from the pure 'folk memory' or 'immemorial tradition'.<ref>[[Ruth Finnegan]], ''Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context'' (Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 140.</ref> In the introduction to ''[[Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border]]'' (1802) the romantic poet and historical novelist [[Walter Scott]] argued a need to 'remove obvious corruptions' in order to attempt to restore a supposed original. For Scott, the process of multiple recitations 'incurs the risk of impertinent interpolations from the conceit of one rehearser, unintelligible blunders from the stupidity of another, and omissions equally to be regretted, from the want of memory of a third.' Similarly, John Robert Moore noted 'a natural tendency to oblivescence'.<ref>"The Influence of transmission on the English Ballads", ''Modern Language Review'' 11 (1916), p. 387.</ref>