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How did Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry influence literary interest in ballads?

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ballad Detail of an undated broadside ballad distributed in Boston following the execution of Levi Ames for burglary and intended to warn “thoughtless Youth.”

Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) was the pivotal catalyst for the 18th-century "ballad revival," a movement that shifted literary appreciation toward traditional folk poetry.12

Prior to this, popular songs were often ignored or dismissed by scholars and elite writers. By curating a collection of English and Scottish traditional ballads—centered around a 15th-century manuscript he rescued from destruction—Percy demonstrated the artistic merit of these works. His publication inaugurated a widespread trend, leading to a flood of subsequent collections, such as Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.21

This shift had a profound impact on the literary landscape, providing English Romantic poets with a vital alternative to the rigid, outworn Neoclassical models of the time. By validating the "darling Songs of the common People," Percy’s work helped transform the ballad into a respected source of inspiration, eventually influencing European literary movements, including the work of Johann Gottfried von Herder in Germany.2