Various nursery pieces deal with material which forms the subject of romantic ballads also. Romantic ballads, like popular songs, are preserved in a number of variations, for they were sung again and again to suit the modified taste of succeeding ages. Many romantic ballads retain much that is pre-Christian in disposition and sentiment. The finest collection of romantic ballads during recent times was made by Child,[24] who included the fireside versions of ballads that have come down to us through nursery literature. Child puts forward the opinion that where we are in possession of a romantic and a fireside version of the same ballad, the latter is a late and degraded survival. But this hardly seems probable, considering that the nursery version of the tale is usually simpler in form, and often consists of dialogue only. [24] Child, F. G., _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_ 1894. In the estimation of Gregory Smith, the oldest extant examples of romantic ballads "do not date further back than the second and third quarter of the fifteenth century" (that is between 1425 and 1475), "since the way in which the incidents in these are presented, reflects the taste of that age."[25] This applies to romantic ballads that are highly complex in form. The fireside version of the same story may have flowed from the same source. The question hangs together with that of the origin of the ballad, which may have arisen in connection with dancing and singing, but the subject needs investigation. [25] Smith, G., _The Transition Period_, 1897, p. 180, in Saintsbury, _Periods of European Literature_. Among our famous early ballads is that of _The Elfin Knight_, the oldest printed copy of which is of 1670. It begins as follows:-- My plaid awa', my plaid awa', And o'er the hill and far awa', And far awa' to Norrowa, My plaid shall not be blown awa'. The Elfin Knight sits on yon hill, Ba, ba, ba, lilli ba, He blaws his horn both loud and shrill, The wind has blawn my plaid awa', He blows it east, he blows it west, He blows it where he liketh best.[26] [26] Child, loc. cit., I, 6 ff.