The Percy Folio of Old English Ballads and Romances (in 4 vols.)
London: The de la More Press, 1905-1910.
The Percy Folio of Old English Ballads and Romances (in 4 vols.)
London: The de la More Press, 1905-1910. Limited edition. This handsome set compiles British legends and folktales dating from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, including the stories of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, Merlin, Robin Hood, Aeneas and Dido, the Battle of Agincourt, and William the Conqueror.
The so-called "Percy Folio" (British Library Add. MS. 27879) is a seventeenth-century manuscript collection of ballads rediscovered by Bishop Thomas Percy in 1753. Percy used the folio as a source for his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a popular collection of English ballads including "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" and "The Nut-Brown Maid." The publication was important for its role in bringing classic English ballads to a modern audience, though the text itself was severely compromised by Percy's own alterations and omissions, as well as his inclusion of dozens of stories from more modern sources. It was not until 1868 that F.J. Furnivall and John W. Hales published Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript, a new version of the text which more closely resembled the manuscript and, importantly, restored the numerous ballads that Percy had not included in his initial publication. The text of the present edition, issued in a luxurious limited edition by the De la More Press between 1905 and 1910, is based on Furnivall and Hales' more faithful version. Near Fine (Item #8290)
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