Anthologies

Europe

In Britain, one of the earliest national poetry anthologies to appear was The British Muse (1738), compiled by William Oldys. Thomas Percy's influential Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), was the first of the great ballad collections, responsible for the ballad revival in English poetry that became a significant part of the Romantic movement. William Enfield's The Speaker; Or, Miscellaneous Pieces was published in 1774 and was a mainstay of 18th Century schoolrooms. Important 19th century anthologies included Palgrave's Golden Treasury (1861), Edward Arber's Shakespeare Anthology (1899) and the first edition of Arthur Quiller Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse (1900).