SOURCE: “Percy, the Antiquarians, the Ballad, and the Middle Ages,” in Studies in Medievalism, Vol. 7, 1995, pp. 22-32.

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 Percy.

The eighteenth-century obsession with the Middle Ages in a search for a British national character brought with it the first examination of the traditional ballads. These, according to the antiquarians, evinced a primitive chivalry of thought and manners which indicated the essential nobility of the native English soul. Today, we still recognize in medieval balladry the voice and perceptions of the illiterate commoner, but our more demanding critical eye deems them debased forms or imperfect imitations of courtly writings, their literary merit negligible. Unfortunately, this persistent perception results, not from the songs themselves, but from the judgments of the Restoration and...