uld not trust that large child, the people of England, to take its
dose of powder without the conventional treacle. To vary the metaphor,
his famous Folio Manuscript he regarded as a Cinderella, and in his
capacity as fairy godmother refused to introduce her to the world
without hiding the slut's uncouth attire under fine raiment. To which
end, besides adding 'little elegant pieces,' he recast and rewrote 'the
more obsolete poems,' many of which came direct from the Folio
Manuscript. Are we to blame him for yielding to the taste of his day?

He did not satisfy every one. Ritson's immediate outcry is famous--and
Ritson stood almost alone. He did, indeed, go so far as to deny the
existence of the Folio Manuscript, and Percy was forced to confute him
by producing it. In the later editions of the _Reliques_, Percy sought
to conciliate him by revising his texts, so as to approximate them more
closely to his originals, but still Ritson cried out for the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. And by this time he had supporters.
But the whole truth as regards the Folio was not to be divulged yet. The
manuscript was most jealously guarded.

Meanwhile the influence of the publication was having its effect. The
poetry of the schools, the poetry of the intellect, the poetry of art,
brought to its highest pitch by writers like Dryden and Pope, was
shelved; metrically exact diction, artificiality of expression,
carefully balanced antitheses, and all the mechanical devices of the
school were placed in abeyance. There was a general return to Nature, to
simplicity, to straightforwardness--not without imagination, however.
Wordsworth, besides insisting, in a famous passage, the Preface to the
_Lyrical Ballads_, on the spontaneity of good poetry, recorded his
tribute to the _Reliques_: 'I do not think that there is an able writer
in verse of the present day who would not be proud to acknowledge his
obligation to the _Reliques_.' While failing often to catch the gusto of
ancient poetry--witness his translations from Chaucer--Wordsworth was
full of the spirit--witness his rifacimento of _The Owl and the
Nightingale_--and, best of all, handed it on to Coleridge.[9] These two
fought side by side against the conventions of the preceding century,
against Dryden, Addison, Pope, and last, but not least, Johnson. Some
have gone so far as to place the definite turning-point in the year
1798, the year of the publication of the _Lyrical Ballads_. Co