Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of our Earlier Poets

This three-volume collection of historical ballads, compiled from multiple sources, achieved great popularity upon its publication in 1765.

Thomas Percy (Edited by)

9781108077255, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 January 2015

382 pages, 5 b/w illus. 1 music example
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.4 kg

While visiting a friend, the writer and cleric Thomas Percy (1729–1811) noticed a neglected folio whose pages were being used by the maids to light the fire. Upon inspection, this manuscript was found to be a seventeenth-century collection of historical ballads. Following this discovery, Percy collected further ballads and songs from a number of sources, which he published in this three-volume work in 1765, although ultimately only a quarter of the texts he presented came from that original manuscript. Although this work proved to be incredibly popular, Percy's idiosyncratic editorial practices also received much criticism. The collection centres on historical ballads and romances, demonstrating the development of language, customs and traditions, to which Percy added contemporary ballads for his readers' enjoyment. Volume 2 includes a rondel which Percy ascribes to Chaucer, as well as verses purported to be by Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I.

Part I: 1. Richard of Almaigne
2. On the death of K. Edward I
3. An original ballad by Chaucer
4. The tournament of Tottenham
5. For the victory of Agincourt
6. The not-browne mayd
7. A balet by the Earl Rivers
8. Cupid's assault, by Lord Vaux
9. Sir Aldingar
10. On Thomas Lord Cromwell
11. Harpalus, an ancient English pastoral
12. Robin and Makyne, an ancient Scottish pastoral
13. Gentle herdsman tell to me
14. K. Edward IV and the tanner of Tamworth
15. As ye came from the Holy Land
16. Hardyknute, a Scottish fragment
Part II: 1. A ballad of Luther, the pope, a cardinal and a husbandman
2. John Anderson, my Jo, a Scottish song
3. Little John Nobody
4. Q. Elizabeth's verses while prisoner at Woodstock
5. Fair Rosamond
6. Queen Eleanor's coronation
7. Gascoigne's praise of the fair Bridges
8. The beggar's daughter of Bednal Green
9. The sturdy rock
10. Young waters, a Scottish ballad
11. Fancy and desire, by the earl of Oxford
12. Sir Andrew Barton
13. Lady Bothwell's lament
14. The murder of the king of Scotts
15. A sonnet by Q. Elizabeth
16. The king of Scots and Andrew Browne
17. The bonny earl of Murray, a Scottish song
18. Mary Ambree
19. Brave Lord Willoughby
20. Victorious men of earth
21. The winning of Cales
22. The Spanish lady's love
23. Argentile and Curan
24. Corin's fate
25. Jane Shore
Part III: 1. The complaint of conscience
2. Plain truth and blind ignorance
3. The wandering Jew
4. The lye, by Sir Walter Raleigh
5. Lord Thomas and fair Annet, a Scottish ballad
6. Corydon's doleful knell
7. K. John and the abbot of Canterbury
8. Verses by K. James I
9. The heir of Lynne
12. The old and young courtier
13. Sir John Suckling's campaigne
14. To Althea from prison
15. The downfall of Charing-Cross
16. Loyalty confined
17. Verses by King Charles I
18. The sale of rebellious household stuff
19. Old Tom of Bedlam, mad song the first
20. The distracted Puritan, mad song the second
21. The lunatic lover, mad song the third
22. The lady distracted with love, mad song the fourth
23. The distracted lover, mad song the fifth
24. The frantic lady, mad song the sixth
25. Lilli-burlero
26. The braes of Yarrow
27. Admiral Hosier's ghost
Glossary.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]