RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY, an anthology of old English bal lads and other verse first published in 1765 by Rev. Thomas Percy (q.v.), vicar of Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, who later became bishop of Dromore, Ireland. During a visit at the house of his friend Humphrey Pitt at Shifnall, Shropshire, he rescued from the hands of a housemaid, who was about to use it to light a fire, an early 17th century folio manu script, which had been ulying dirty on the floor under a bureau in the parlour." At the sug gestion of William Shenstone he made it the basis of the collection of English ballads, re vised and edited in the best which be came famous as 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.' This anthology has been called the bible of the Romantic Breathing the primal emotions of folk-poetry it created an entire change in the poetic spirit of the age and in a rebound from classical to human ele ments gave a more natural and virile tone to Enfaish verse which found its best exemplifi cation later, in the ballad literature of Scott, Campbell and Coleridge, its influence also ex tending to German literature. Named in honor
of Bishop Percy, the Percy Society (1840-52) was founded for the purpose of publishing old English poetry, by a group of scholars includ ing Alexander Dyce, Halliwell Phillips, John Payne Collier and Thomas Wright. Edited in complete form by Hales, J. W., and Furnivall, F. J., the original 'Folio Manuscript' appeared in 1867-68. Besides the early editions of the 'Reliques,) including the 4th edition by the bishop's nephew, Thomas Percy (1768-1808), several editions have appeared. Of late date are those of Wheatley, H. B. (London 1891; New York 1910); and the edition of 'Every man's Library) (New York 1906).