Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

by Henry Watson Kent

Although his name does not appear upon the title-page, the author signed it to the dedication to Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland. He offers the book, he says, with some hesitation, yet hopes that the names of so many men of learning and character among his patrons and subscribers will "ſerve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable cenſure for having beſtowed any attention on a parcel of Old Ballads."

The book came out in February, after four or five years of active preparation. Johnson criticised it, but in the main the work was received with the verdict, which has held ever since, that it marked an epoch. Dibdin says that when it appeared, the critics "roared aloud for a sight of the MS.!" especially Joseph Ritson, the antiquary, who denied its existence. Dibdin, however, saw the folio, and describes it at some length, besides quoting notes in the Bishop's handwriting, one of which is of especial interest:

"Memorandum. Northumberland House, Nov. 7, 1769. This very curious old Manuscript in its present mutilated state, but unbound and sadly torn, I rescued from destruction, and begged at the hands of my worthy friend Humphrey Pitt, Esq. then living at Shiffnal in Shropshire, afterwards of Prior Lee near that town; who died very lately at Bath: viz. in Summer, 1769. I saw it lying dirty on the Floor under a Bureau in ye Parlour: being used by the Maids to light the fire. It was afterwards sent most unfortunately to an ignorant Bookbinder, who pared the margin, when I put it into Boards in order to lend it to Dr. Johnson."

James Dodsley, the printer of our charming volumes, was the younger brother of Robert, with whom, as R. & J. Dodsley, he was for some time a partner, until, in 1759, he became the sole proprietor of the house. He lacked the elder man's energy, but he carried on an extensive and profitable business. He is said to have paid Percy 100 guineas for the first edition of the Reliques—not a very large sum for such a work. Pickford tells us, however, that "as the Reliques became popular, and as other editions were in request, so did the sums paid to Percy increase; and best of all, the book attracted the notice of those in a high class, in whose power it was to forward and promote the interests of the editor." Whatever the basis of his relations with Dodsley, we have his own word for it that when the third edition was published he "had no share in the property of the impression." Those "in a high class" promoted our author from one thing to another, until, as Granger had hoped he would do, "he found himself sung into a throne," a reward quite as much to his mind, no doubt, as anything Dodsley could have arranged.

It is only fair to say that few authors of the period were better served by their publisher than Percy was by his in the matter of typography. The ornament used is also especially good. A frontispiece to the first volume, surmounted by the inscription, "Non Omnis Moriar," and representing a harper delighting an audience, is signed by Samuel Wale, who was chiefly employed in designing vignettes and illustrations for books. He had studied with Francis Hayman, a printer and maker of illustrations, who, with N. Blakey, was employed by Messrs. Knapton and Dodsley to execute the first series of historical prints designed by Englishmen. The plate was engraved by Charles Grignion, or Grignon, a pupil of Gravelot and Le Bas, who, like Wale, was much employed by publishers. Together they illustrated a large number of books; but the charm of their work seems to be chiefly due to Grignion. The vignettes, with the motto "Durat Opus Vatum" on the title-pages and the head- and tail-pieces, though unsigned, were evidently designed and engraved by the same hands.

There are three parts to each volume, and each part begins and ends with a copper-plate engraving illustrative of a ballad. The head-pieces refer to the first ballad in the book, but the tail-pieces have legends showing where the poem is found. On page 24 of the second volume, the following note is attached to the poem "For the Victory of Agincourt": "This ſong or hymn is given meerly as a curioſity, and is printed from a MS copy in the Pepys collection, vol. I. folio. It is there accompanied with the muſical notes, which are copied in a ſmall plate at the end of this volume."

A table of "Errata" for all three volumes, an "Advertisement," and a note "To the Binder" are found at the end of the first volume. The Advertisement reads: "The Editor's diſtance from the preſs has occaſioned ſome miſtakes and confuſion in the Numbers of the ſeveral Poems, and in the References from one Volume to another: the latter will be ſet right by the Table of Errata, and the former by the Tables of Contents. In the Second Volume, page 129 follows page 112: this was merely an overſight in the Printer; nothing is there omitted."

The binder finds this caution addressed to him: "The Binder is deſired to take Notice that the marginal Numbers of the 1ſt and 3^d Volumes are wrong: that the Sheets marked Vol. i. are to be bound up as Volume The Third: and that thoſe noted Vol. III. as Volume The First." Neither author nor printer thought to tell us of the addition of "George Barnwell" in eight leaves, at page 224 of Volume III; but perhaps the inclusion was decided upon too late for the crowding in of another note.

The notes are interesting, and are quoted here as showing that Percy made many changes in the work even after it was ready to be sewed, perhaps after some copies had been issued. For instance, there seems to be no reason to doubt that he changed the order of the volumes after they were all printed, making the first last, in order to bring the ballads of "Chevy Chase" and the Robin Hood cycle at the beginning. Two volumes of the Reliques without imprints, preserved in the Douce collection of the Bodleian Library, are interesting in this connection since they contain many pieces not in the published edition. A note by Furnivall, added to Rev. J. Pickford's Life of Percy which prefaced the Hales and Furnivall Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, 1867, gives the omission and changes in detail. We quote only the following: "... and the engraving at the end of Douce's volume ii., instead of being the published rustic sketch, is a coat of arms, with a lion and unicorn at the side with the Percy motto 'Esperance en Dieu.' This was wisely cancelled, no doubt, as the Countess of Northumberland might not then have appreciated the compliment of the grocer's son claiming kinship with her."