Some of the music too is from collections dated 1558, while we have also those which Rome and Naples are still creating at the present hour.
In all these matters Miss Busk's volume must take place as the student's text-book, who will also find under his hand a list of all the Italian writers on the subject of folk-poetry to guide his further research, if he need any.
The book is provided with a very complete index; and, if we transcribe the entries under one letter taken by hazard, it will give the reader evidence of two things we have stated—the wide range of the subjects treated in the book, and the representative character which the songs themselves bear of the people's mind. Madrigal; Mafia; Maggi (songs and singers for the month of May); Malta; Manfred; Songs of le Marche; Marirara, a Sicilian sailor's song; Mariola (a Sicilian instrument); Marriage in Folk-songs (15 instances, some satirical); Mattinate (a variation of serenades that will probably be new to most); May in Folk-songs (6 instances); Metre of Folk-songs (12 entries); the Migration of Folk-songs; Mischief-making in Folk-songs; Modern Collection of Italian Folk-songs: Modern Folk-songs (9 entries); Momaria; Montigiani; Moon in Folk-songs; Morality in Folk-songs (11 entries); the Mother-in-law in Folk-songs; Music of Folk-songs; Mythology in Folk-songs, &c.
Among all local subjects bandelli are not forgotten, and we shall leave it to the reader to see what Miss Busk has to plead in their favour, but we think the following Corsican song remarkable for its rough dramatic energy:—
Stand back! 'Tis I would know his state,
O let me to him hie.
Santo mine own! Brother mine own!
And have they made thee die!
Ah! freshly have they slain him!
O Santo mine I Brother mine own!
My falcon guard he'd made him
The mainstay of our common home.
What life is she henceforth to lead?
The sister left alone!
