"Canst thou, Marina, leave the world,
The world that is devotion's bane,
Where crowns are toss'd and sceptres hurl'd,
Where lust and proud ambition reign?
Canst thou thy costly robes forbear,
To live with us in poor attire;
Canst thou from courts to cells repair
To sing at midnight in the quire?"[45]
The likeness in this stanza to Percy's song is not very apparent, and the subject is very different. The other three stanzas have nothing in common with O Nancy. Even could it be proved that Percy had borrowed the opening idea from these two poems, it does not derogate from his originality, for the charm of the song is all his own.
A portrait of Mrs. Percy holding in her hand a scroll inscribed Oh Nancy, is preserved at Ecton House, near Northampton, the seat of Mr. Samuel Isted, husband of Percy's daughter Barbara.
The song was set to music by Thomas Carter, and sung by Vernon at Vauxhall in 1773.
In 1761 Percy commenced his literary career by the publication of a Chinese novel, Hau Kiau Chooan, in four volumes, which he translated from the Portuguese, and in the same year he undertook to edit the works of the Duke of Buckingham. In 1762 he published "Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the Chinese," and in 1763 commenced a new edition of Surrey's Poems, with a selection of early specimens of blank verse. The "Buckingham" and "Surrey" were printed, but never published, and the stock of the latter was destroyed by fire in 1808. In 1763 were published "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry—translated from the Icelandic Language," and in the following year appeared "A New Translation of the Song of Solomon from the Hebrew, with Commentary and Notes," and also "A Key to the New Testament." Dr. Johnson paid a long-promised visit to the Vicarage of Easton Maudit in the summer of 1764, where he stayed for some months, and the little terrace in the garden is still called after him, "Dr. Johnson's Walk." At this time Percy must have been full of anxiety about his Reliques, which were shortly to be published, and in the preparation of which he had so long been engaged. The poet Shenstone was the first to suggest the subject of this book, as he himself states in a letter to a friend, dated March 1, 1761. "You have heard me speak of Mr. Percy; he was in treaty with Mr. James Dodsley for the publication of our best old ballads in three volumes. He has a large folio MS. of ballads, which he showed me, and which, with his own natural and acquired talents, would qualify him for the purpose as well as any man in England. I proposed the scheme to him myself, wishing to see an elegant edition and good collection of this kind. I was also to have assisted him in selecting and rejecting, and fixing upon the best readings; but my illness broke off the correspondence in the beginning of winter."
In February, 1765, appeared the first edition of the Reliques, which gave Percy a name, and obtained for him the patronage of the great. He became Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland, with whose family he kept up intimate relations throughout his life. The Northumberland Household Book, which he compiled in accordance with the wishes of his patron, was privately printed in the year 1768.[46] In 1769 he was appointed Chaplain to George III., and in the following year appeared his translation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Each of these three works was the first of its class, and created a taste which produced a literature of the same character. The Household Book gave rise to a large number of publications which have put us in possession of numerous facts relating to the domestic expenses and habits of the royal and noble families of old England. The mythology of the Eddas was first made known to English readers by Percy, and in his Preface to Mallet's work he clearly pointed out the essential difference between the Celtic and Teutonic races, which had previously been greatly overlooked.
The remuneration which Percy received for his labours was not large. Fifty pounds was the pay for the Chinese novel, and one hundred guineas for the first edition of the Reliques. The agreements he made with the Tonsons were fifty guineas for Buckingham's Works and twenty guineas for Surrey's Poems. He also agreed to edit the Spectator and Guardian, with notes, for one hundred guineas, but was obliged to abandon his intention on account of the engrossing character of his appointments in the Northumberland family.
About this time Mrs. Percy was appointed nurse to Prince Edward, the infant son of George III., afterwards Duke of Kent, and father of her present Majesty, who was born in 1767.
In 1770 Percy took his degree of D.D. at Cambridge, having incorporated himself at Emmanuel College, the master of which was his friend, Dr. Farmer, to be remembered as the Shakspere commentator. Later on in the year he lost his eldest daughter, and in January, 1771, yet another child was buried in the village church. In 1771 he printed the Hermit of Warkworth, which exhibited his continued interest in the subject of the Reliques, and we find him for many years after this date continually writing to his literary correspondents for information relating to old ballads.
In 1778 Percy obtained the Deanery of Carlisle, which four years afterwards he resigned on being appointed to the bishopric of Dromore, worth £2,000 a year. He did not resign his vicarage and rectory until the same time, and he was succeeded in the first by Robert Nares, the compiler of the well-known glossary. It was in 1778 that the memorable quarrel between Percy and Johnson occurred which is graphically described by Boswell. The cause of the heat was the different views held by the two disputants as to the merits of the traveller Pennant. When the reconciliation was brought about Johnson's contribution to the peace was, "My dear sir, I am willing you shall hang Pennant."