Add MS 39547

LETTERS and transcripts of ballads, by Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore (1782- 1811), editor of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 1765.

1. Letters (ten) to his wife, [Anne] Percy, with the addition of one mutilated letter (f. 15) to Lord [Algernon] Percy ; 1765-1782. The letters were written in the main during Percy's residence at Alnwick as tutor to Lord Algernon Percy, and relate to tours in the North of England and Scotland, a performance of Rowe's " Jane Shore " in the private theatre of [Edward Augustus,] Duke of York, 20 June 1767 (f. 3), a visit of [Henry Frederick,] Duke of Cumberland, to the North, 1771 (f. 7), etc. Two (ff. 40, 42) refer to his appointment as Bishop of Dromore, 1782. An incomplete diary, " Observanda in the Tour into Scotland, Aug. 8, 1773," is included (f. 17). For copious extracts see A. C. C. Gaussen, Percy, Prelate and Poet, 1908. A later series of letters to Mrs. Percy, 1798-1800, is in Add. MS. 32335. f. 1.

2. Transcripts of ballads, chiefly from printed sources in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and elsewhere, made by Percy or his amanuenses during the preparation of the Reliques, although only one (see (b) below) was printed in that collection. Similar transcripts are among the Percy Papers in the Harvard College Library (cf. H. E. Rollins, A Pepysian Garland, 1922, p. viii). The references below to Child are to the numbers of the ballads as printed by F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-98. (a) " The honour of the Gentle-Craft expressed in three stories ; the first of Sir Hugh and fair Winifred ; the second of Crispin and Crispianus ; the third of Sir Simon Eyre : who all three professed the Gentle Craft, and were shoemakers . . . Printed by H. B. for J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1685." From the copy " in Pepys' Merriments vol. 1.12 " in the Pepysian Library. f. 43 ;-

(b) " Adam Bell. Both the modern copy, and the ancient one, whence the lines were printed in y^e lst vol. of Reliques of Ancient Poetry 1765 [p. 129]." The modern copy (f. 55) "is transcribed from a 4° edit. in black letter, not very ancient, intitled (without (late) Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and William of Cloudeslee bound up in the 3rd vol. of Vulgaria in Pepys' Library," and has, (f. 69) a partial collation, in Percy's hand, with the old copy, i.e. Copland's edition " in Mr. Garrick's Collection of Old Plays K. Vol. X" (note by Percy, 27 Feb. 1762). This last has corrections and notes for the printer in Percy's hand. Child, no. 116. f. 54 ;-

(c) "A true Tale of Robin Hood . . . By Martin Parker. Printed by J. Clark, &c. 1686 . . . (Pepys' Merriments, vol. 2, pag. 857)." Child, no. 154. f. 78 ;-

(d) "The Chorl & the Bird: by Lydgate, from 1 MS. [Cotton MS. Caligula A. ii, f. 17] and 2 printed copies [Copland's edition collated with Wynkyn de Worde's]." All copied by Percy. A specimen collation with the edition in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 1652, is given for the first page of the Cotton text. Cf. H. N. MacCracken, Minor Poems of John Lydgate, E.E.T.S., 1917, p. xiii, no. 17. Some notes by Perey in pencil were added in 1794. f. 89 ;-

(e) " A mery geste of Robyn Hoode and of hys lyfe, wyth a newe playe for to be played in Maye games very pleasaunte and full of pastyme . . . (Transcribed from the small quarto edition iii black letter, containing eight sheets and a half.-In Mr. Garrick's Collection of Old Plays K. Vol. 10). July 23d. 1761." Collated (the geste, " Jan. 11. 1763 ") with the copy of Wynkyn de Worde's edition " in the archives of the public library at Cambridge. D. 5. 2 " [now AB. 4. 58¹⁸]. The play is not in Wynkyn de Worde's edition. Child, no. 117. f. 109 ;-

(f) " Thomas a Potts and the Lord Phœnix," i.e. " The Lovers Quarrel or Cupids Triumph being the pleasant history of Fair Rosamond of Scotland," from " Pepys Merriments vol. 1. p. 187." Child, no. 109. f. 145 ;-

(g) "The frere & the boy," transcribed "from an ancient black letter printed by Wynkin de Word in 4to, without any date, preserved in the archives of the public library at Cambridge. D. f. 23 [now AB. 4.58²²]. Some few corrections were from another copy in the editor's Folio MS. [now Add. MS. 27879], but with a sparing hand, because the later seemed in some places to have undergone a revisal. But the nine last stanzas, being totally corrupted in in (sic) Wynkin's copy, have been chiefly restored from that in MS." Cf. Hales and Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. Loose and Humorous Songs, 1867, p. 9. Apparently intended to be printed in the Reliques, but not used. f. 156 ;-

(h) "The second part of the Frier and the Boy. London. 1680. Pepys' Merriments vol. 2. p. 539." Begins: " Let Venus fair that sits above." f. 167 ;-

(i) " The History of Frier Bacon, "transcribed" from a small 12^o tract in Pepys' Merriments vol. 1. p. 1 . . . London printed 1683." f. 178;-

(k) " The Judgement of God shewed upon one John Faustus Doctor in Divinity," transcribed from "Pepys vol. 2. pag. 142." Marked (in Percy's hand) "Rejected." f. 187 ;-

(l) "Damnable practises of three Lincolneshire witches Joane Flower and her two daughters," from " Pepys vol. 1. pag. 132." Printed from the same source in Rollins, Pepysian Garland, p. 97. Marked "Rejected." f. 189. Paper; ff. 193. Folio. Presented by Mrs. Arthur Broadwood, great-granddaughter of Bishop Percy, who bought the papers in at the sale of the goods of her father Edward Richard Meade.