an ancient MS. in the editor's possession, which contains near two hundred poems, songs, and metrical romances." The fact is that only one-fourth were so taken. The Reliques contain 180 pieces, and of these only forty-five* are taken from the manuscript. We thus see that a very small part of the manuscript was printed by Percy. He mentions some of the other pieces in various parts of his *The following is a list of these, taken from Mr. Furnivall's Forewords: Sir Cauline. Robin Hood and Guy of Gis- The Child of Elle. Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and William of Cloudesly. Take thy old Cloak about thee (or Bell my wife). Sir Lancelot du Lake. The Winning of Cales. The Heir of Lynne. To Althea from Prison (When The Boy and the Mantle. The more modern Ballad of The Legend of King Arthur. Chevy Chase. The Rising in the North. Douglas. The Not-browne Mayd. Glasgerion. Old Robin of Portingale. Northumberland betrayed by Child Waters. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. Sir Aldingar. Gentle Heardsman, tell to me. The Beggar's Daughter of Bed- Sir Andrew Barton. The Murder of the King of The King of Scots and Andrew Gil Morrice. Legend of Sir Guy. The Shepherd's Resolution. The King of France's Daughter. The King and Miller of Mans- The Wandering Prince of Troy. book, and he proposed to publish a fourth volume of the Reliques at some future period that never came. Mr. Furnivall has the following remarks on the gains to literature by the publication of the manuscript: It is more that we have now for the first time Eger and Grime in its earlier state, Sir Lambewell, besides the Cavilere's praise of his hawking, the complete versions of Scottish Feilde and Kinge Arthur's Death, the fullest of Flodden Feilde and the verse Merline, the Earle of Westmorlande, Bosworth Feilde, the curious poem of John de Reeve, and the fine alliterative one of Death and Liffe, with its gracious picture of Lady dame Life, awakening life and love in grass and tree, in bird and man, as she speeds to her conquest over death." In 1774 Percy wrote: "In three or four years I intend to publish a volume or two more of old English and Scottish poems in the manner of my Reliques." And again in 1778: "With regard to the Reliques, I have a large fund of materials, which when my son has compleated his studies at the University, he may, if he likes it, distribute into one or more additional volumes.' The death of this son put an end to his hopes, but before the fourth edition was required, the bishop had obtained the assistance of his nephew, the Rev. Thomas Percy. In 1801 he wrote as follows to Jamieson, who had asked for some extracts from the folio: "Till my nephew has completed his collection for the intended fourth volume it cannot be decided whether he may not wish to insert himself the fragments you desire; but I have copied for you here that one which you particularly pointed out, as I was unwilling to disappoint your wishes and expectations altogether. By it you will see the defective and incorrect state of the old text in the ancient folio MS., and the irresistible demand on the editor of the Reliques to attempt some of those conjectural emendations, which have been blamed by one or two rigid critics, but without which the collection would not have deserved a moment's attention." Percy has been very severely judged for the alterations he made in his manuscript authorities; and Ritson has attempted to consider his conduct as a question of morality rather than one of taste. As each point is noticed in the prefaces to the various pieces, it is not necessary to discuss the question here. It may, however, be remarked that, in spite of all Ritson's attacks (and right was sometimes on his side), the Reliques remain to the present day unsuperseded. Mr. Thoms communicated to the Notes and Queries (5th series, v. 431) the following note, which he made upwards of forty years ago, after a conversation with Francis Douce : "Mr. Douce told me that the Bishop (Percy) originally intended to have left the manuscript to Ritson; but the reiterated abuse with which that irritable and not always faultless antiquary visited him obliged him to alter his determination. With regard to the alterations (? amendments) made by Percy in the text, Mr. Douce told me that he (Percy) read to him one day from the MS., while he held the work in his hand to compare the two; and 'certainly the variations were greater than I could have expected,' said my old friend, with a shrug of the shoulders." Of the other sources from which Percy drew his materials little need be said. 2. Some of the ballads were taken from MSS. in public libraries, and others from MSS. that were lent to him. 3. The Scotch ballads supplied by Sir David Dalrymple have already been referred to. 4. The printed ballads are chiefly taken from the Pepys Collection at Cambridge. 5. When the Reliques were first published, the elegant poems in the Paradyse of Daynty Devises, England's Helicon, were little known, and it was a happy thought on the part of Percy to intersperse these smaller pieces among the longer ballads, so as to please the reader with a constant variety. The weak point in the book is the insertion of some of the modern pieces. The old minstrel believed the wonders he related; but a poet educated in modern ideas cannot transfer himself back to the times of chivalry, so that his attempts at imitating "the true Gothic manner" are apt to fill his readers with a sense of unreality. After the first edition of the Reliques was printed, and before it was published, Percy made a great alteration in its arrangement. The first volume was turned into the third, and the third into the first, as may be seen by a reference to the foot of the pages where the old numbering remains. By this means the Arthur Ballads were turned off to the end, and Chevy Chase and Robin Hood obtained the place of honour. Several ballads were also omitted at the last moment, and the numbers left vacant. These occur in a copy of two volumes at Oxford which formerly belonged to Douce. In Vol. III. (the old Vol. I.), Book 1, there is no No. 19; in the Douce copy this is filled by The Song-birds. In Vol. II., Book 3, there are no Nos. 10 and 11; but in the Douce copy, Nos. 9, 10, and 11 are Cock Lorrell's Treat, The Moral Uses of Tobacco, and Old Simon the Kinge. Besides these omissions it will be seen that in Book 3 of Vol. III. there are two Nos. 2; and that George Barnwell must have been inserted at the last moment, as it occupies a duplicate series of pages 225-240, which are printed between brackets. 1765 the volumes were published in London. In In the following year a surreptitious edition was published in Dublin, and in 1767 appeared a second edition in London. In 1775 was published the third edition, which was reprinted at Frankfort in 1790. The fourth edition, ostensibly edited by the Rev. Thomas Percy, but really the work of the bishop himself, was published in 1794. Many improvements were made in this edition, and it contains Percy's final corrections; the fifth edition, published in 1812, being merely a reprint of the fourth. The year 1765 was then a memorable one in the history of literature. The current ballads which were bawled in the street, or sung in the alehouse, were so mean and vulgar that the very name of ballad had sunk into disrepute. It was therefore a revelation to many to find that a literature of nature still existed which had descended from mother to child in remote districts, or was buried in old manuscripts, covered with the dust of centuries. It is necessary to realize this state of things in order to understand Percy's apologetic attitude. He collected his materials from various sources with great labour, and spared no pains in illustrating the poetry by instructive prose. Yet after welding with the force of genius the various parts into an harmonious whole, he was doubtful of the reception it was likely to obtain, and he called the contents of his volumes "the barbarous productions of unpolished ages." He backed his own opinion of their interest by bringing forward the names of the chiefs of the republic of letters, and ill did they requite him. Johnson parodied his verses, and Warburton sneered at him as the man "who wrote about the Chinese." Percy looked for his reward where he received nothing but laughter; but the people accepted his book with gladness, and the young who fed upon the food he presented to them grew up to found new schools of poetry. |