Reliquias de la poesía inglesa antigua

Las Reliquias de la Poesía Inglesa Antigua (a veces conocidas como Reliquias de la Poesía Antigua o simplemente Reliquias de Percy ) es una colección de baladas y canciones populares recopiladas por el obispo Thomas Percy y publicada en 1765 .

La base de la obra fue el manuscrito conocido como el Folio de Percy . Percy encontró el folio en la casa de su amigo Humphrey Pitt en Shifnal , un pequeño pueblo comercial de Shropshire . Estaba en el suelo, y la criada de Pitt había estado usando las hojas para encender fuego. Una vez rescatado, Percy utilizó solo cuarenta y cinco de las baladas del folio para su libro, a pesar de afirmar que la mayor parte de la colección provenía de este folio. Otras fuentes fueron la Biblioteca Pepys de baladas impresas recopiladas por Samuel Pepys y la Colección de Baladas Antiguas publicada en 1723, posiblemente por Ambrose Philips . El obispo Percy fue animado a publicar la obra por sus amigos Samuel Johnson y el poeta William Shenstone , quienes también encontraron y contribuyeron con baladas.

Percy no trató el folio ni los textos que contenía con el cuidado escrupuloso que se espera de un editor de manuscritos moderno. Escribió sus propias notas directamente en las páginas del folio, corrigió las rimas e incluso arrancó páginas del documento para dárselas al impresor sin hacer copias. ^{[ 1 ]} Fue criticado por estas acciones incluso en su momento, sobre todo por Joseph Ritson , otro anticuario . El folio con el que trabajó parece haber sido escrito por un solo copista y errores como «pan» y «wale» en lugar de « wan» y «pale» necesitaban corrección.

Las Reliquias contenían ciento ochenta baladas en tres volúmenes con tres secciones en cada uno. Incluyen baladas tan importantes como « La balada de Chevy Chase », « La batalla de Otterburn », « Lillibullero », « El dragón de Wantley », « La doncella morena » y « Sir Patrick Spens », junto con baladas mencionadas por Shakespeare o que posiblemente lo inspiraron , varias baladas sobre Robin Hood y una sobre el Judío Errante . ^{[ 2 ]}

The claim that the book contained samples of ancient poetry was only partially correct. The last part of each volume was given over to more contemporary works—often less than a hundred years old—included to stress the continuing tradition of the balladeer. The collection draws on the Folio and on other manuscript and printed sources, but in at least three cases anonymous informants, "ladies" in each case, contributed oral poetry known to them. He made substantial amendments to the Folio text in collaboration with his friend the poet William Shenstone.

The work was dedicated to Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Northumberland, who was married to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Elizabeth was part of the Percy family and a descendant of Henry Percy, a protagonist of some of the early ballads. Bishop Thomas Percy also claimed to be connected to the family and although this may have been fanciful on his part, it did seem to help him secure his preferment.

The dedication to the duchess meant that Thomas Percy arranged the work to give prominence to the border ballads which were composed in and about the Scottish and English borders, specifically Northumberland, home county of the Percies. Percy also omitted some of the racier ballads from the Folio for fear of offending his noble patron: these were first published by F. J. Furnivall in 1868.^[3]

Ballad collections had appeared before but Percy's Reliques seemed to capture the public imagination like no other. Not only would it inspire poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth to compose their own literary ballads in imitation, it also made the collecting and study of oral poetry a popular pastime. Sir Walter Scott was another writer inspired by reading the Reliques in his youth, and he published some of the ballads he collected in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The more rigorous scholarship of folklorists would eventually supersede Percy's work, most notably in Francis James Child's Child Ballads, but Percy gave impetus to the whole subject.

The book is also credited, in part, with changing the prevailing literary movement of the 18th century, Neo-Classicism, into Romanticism. The classicist Augustans took as their model the epic hexameters of Virgil's Aeneid and the blank verse of John Milton's three epics. The Reliques highlighted the traditions and folklore of England seen as simpler and less artificial. It would inspire folklore collectors and movements in other parts of Europe and beyond, such as the Brothers Grimm in French-occupied Westphalia and Hesse, and such movements would act as the foundation of romantic nationalism. The Percy Society was founded in 1840 to continue the work of publishing rare ballads, poems and early texts.

• Volume I of the first edition
• Volume II of the first edition
• Volume III of the first edition