Thomas Percy was well known during his lifetime as a pioneer scholar, a friend and clubmate of Samuel Johnson, and a dignitary of the church. Today he is remembered for the Reliques of Ancient English...
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In the following essay, Brooks provides an overview of Percy's correspondence with author William Shenstone, focusing particularly on Shenstone's assistance in the compilation of Percy&#...
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In the following essay, Brooks offers an account of Percy's writings, noting that the preponderance of negative critical attention given to the Reliques diminishes Percy's reputation as ...
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In the following excerpt, Davis examines Percy's Reliques, analyzing the text's sources and providing an overview of its contents and a brief survey of its various editions.
The eight...
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In the following essay, Davis examines contemporary controversies surrounding Percy's Reliques, focusing specifically on Percy's accuracy and editorial practices.
“I bestow upo...
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In the following essay, Knapman discusses the critical evaluation, by both contemporaries and twentieth-century scholars, of Percy's editing practices in the Reliques.
In 1765, the year when...
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In the following essay, Donatelli analyzes the Folio manuscript that was the primary source for Percy's Reliques, and notes the influence of metrical romances on Percy's editorial select...
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In the following essay, Morgan assesses the literary status of ballads from medieval times to the present, specifically focusing on eighteenth-century perceptions of balladry via the works of Thomas P...
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In the following essay, Groom examines the relevance of James Macpherson's Ossian to Percy's work on the Reliques, pointing to contemporary eighteenth-century controversies regarding the...
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Thomas Percy
Critical Essay by Cleanth Brooks
