Also 6 balletry, -adrie, 7 -atry. [f. BALLAD sb. + -RY.] Ballad poetry; composition in the ballad style. (Formerly often depreciative; cf. BALLAD sb. 3.)
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 6. Such massacre’s made of thy balladry.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, 138. An obscene veine of ballatry which makes the wenches of the greene laugh.
a. 1695. H. Purcell, Anthems, Pref. (T.). To loath the levity and balladry of our neighbours.
1849. Blackw. Mag., LXV. 455. Torturing himself to unite old balladry with modern sentiment.
