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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
That William Shenstone has some share in the preparation of Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry has been recognized ever since Percy made an acknowledgment of his indebtedness in the preface to the first edition. But Percy's account of their collaboration as given in the preface is inadequate and misleading; and a misinterpretation of two of Shenstone's letters to his friends has resulted in an entirely false impression on one significant point, as to who was instrumental in getting Percy started on a collection of ballads for publication. The purpose of this article is to correct the misconception and to develop in some detail the story of their collaboration. It is based in part on unpublished Manuscripts in the Harvard College Library.
1 Among those who have accepted and perpetuated this impression are Richard Graves in his anonymous Recollections of Some Particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone, Esq., p. 162; Rev. John Pickford, “Life of Bishop Percy,” in John W. Hales and Frederick J. Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Polio Manuscript, i, xxxv; Henry B. Wheatley in his edition of the Reliques, i, lxxv; and Alice C. C. Gaussen, Percy, Prelate and Poet, p. 43.
2 Shenstone, Wm., Works (1773), iii, 321. Letter ciii.
3 “Original Letters of Shenstone, David Hume, and Joseph Spence,” Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809, ii, Part ii, 551.
4 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (3rd. ed.), i, ix.
5 Hecht, Hans, “Thomas Percy und William Shenstone, ein Briefwechsel,” Quellen und Forschungen, ciii (1909), 6–7. Letter of January 4, 1758.
6 Letter of November 24, 1757. Hecht, op. cit., pp. 4–5.
7 Letter of January 9, 1758. Hecht, op. cit., p. 9.
8 Idem., note.—In the preface to the Reliques Percy acknowledged that “To the friendship of Dr. Samuel Johnson he owes many valuable hints for the conduct of the work.” Reliques, i, xvi.
9 Reliques, i, xiv.
10 In a letter from Johnson to Percy, dated Oct. 4, 1760, recently discovered and printed by Robert F. Metzdorf in Mod. Lang. Notes, Dec. 1935, pp. 509–513.
11 Hill, G. B., Letters of Samuel Johnson, i, 89–90.
12 Powell, L. F., “Percy's Reliques,” The Library, 4th Series, ix (1928–1929), 117.
13 Hill, G. B., “Boswell's Proof-Sheets,” Johnson Club Papers (1899), 69; and Hill, Johnsonian Miscellanies, ii, 29 note.
14 Powell, op. cit., p. 121.
15 Macaulay, T. B., Works, (London, 1866), v, 531.
16 Reliques (3rd ed.) i, xiv.
17 Hecht, op. cit., p. 5.
18 Ibid., p. 12.
19 Letter of January 4, 1758. Ibid., p. 6.
20 Hecht, op. cit., pp. 6–7.
21 Ibid., p. 5.
22 Reliques, 3rd ed., ii, 79.
23 Percy's translation was published as a part of the introduction to his friend James Grainger's Poetical Translation of the Elegies of Tibullus, in 1758.
24 Letter of January 9, 1758. Hecht, op. cit., p. 10.
25 Percy did not publish these translations, although he worked intermittently at them for some years. See Nichols, J., Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, vii, 254–271 passim.
26 Letter of February 4, 1759. Hecht, op. cit., p. 15.
27 Ibid., p. 10.
28 Hecht, op. cit., pp. 13, 17, 21, 24, 27.
29 In Percy's commonplace book in the Harvard College Library (Percy MSS., Folder 249) are half a dozen fragmentary ballads “attempted to be restored,” with the additions carefully designated.
30 Letter of February 15, 1760. Hecht, op. cit., p. 30.
31 The time of the visit is established by Percy's writing to Shenstone of “the Melancholy Event of my Mother's death which happened while I was at your House.” Hecht, op. cit., p. 37. Mrs. Jane Percy died on May 21, 1760. Ibid., p. 114.
32 Shenstone's letter of January 4, 1758. Hecht, op. cit., p. 6.
Percy's letter of August 3, 1759. Ibid., p. 21.
Shenstone's letter of November 23, 1759. Ibid., p. 27.
33 Of the 176 pieces in the first edition of the Reliques, only 45 came from the Folio manuscript. Hales and Furnivall, op. cit., i, xxii.
34 Reliques (ed. cit.), i, xi.
35 Letter of October 1, 1760. Hecht, op. cit., p. 44.
36 Letter of September 17, 1761. Ibid., p. 65.
37 Hecht, op. cit., p. 87.
38 Letter of November 10, 1760. Hecht, op. cit., p. 46.
69 Idem.
40 Ibid., pp. 46–47.
41 Ibid., p. 47.
42 “Original Letters of Shenstone, David Hume, and Joseph Spence,” loc. cit. See also Hecht, op. cit., pp. 65–66.
43 Hecht, op. cit., p. 51.
44 Ibid., p. 44.
45 “Original Letters of Shenstone, David Hume, and Joseph Spence,” loc. cit.
46 Hecht, op. cit., p. 43.
47 Hecht, op. cit., p. 44.
48 These lists of titles, and the accompanying comments, have never been published. They are among the Percy MSS. (Folder 273) in the Harvard College Library, and are labelled “Shenstone's Billets.”
49 Percy MSS. Harvard College Library. Folder 273. “Shenstone's Billets,” No. 3.
50 Letter of October 1, 1760. Hecht, op. cit., p. 44; Letter of November 10, 1760. Ibid., p. 46.
51 Shenstone, op. cit., iii, 319. Letter ciii.
52 Letter of April 24, 1761. Hecht, op. cit., p. 52.
53 Idem.
54 Hecht, op. cit., pp. 52–53.
55 Letter of May 22, 1761. Hecht, op. cit., p. 53.
56 Ibid., p. 49.
57 Ibid., pp. 53–54.
58 Ibid., p. 54.
59 Hecht, op. cit., p. 54.
60 Idem.—In spite of this express article, after 1778 when Dodsley and Shenstone had long been dead, Percy talked of supplementary volumes to be edited by his son, and after the son's death in 1793 the project was transferred to Percy's nephew. Nichols, Illustrations, viii, 88, 94, 101, 108. The supplementary volumes were never issued, although Percy collected some materials for them. Among the Percy MSS. (Folder 274) in the Harvard College Library is a folder with his title at the top: “Vol. 5.) Book i.”
61 Mrs. Duff's collection may be the same as that described by Percy as “one large folio volume which was lent by a lady.” Reliques, 3rd. ed., i, xiv.
62 Hecht, op. cit., pp. 58, 121.—However, as a result of delays, partly Shenstone's fault and partly MacGowan's, it was many months before MacGowan actually furnished any aid. Hecht, op. cit., pp. 60, 67, 78, 83.
63 Powell, L. F., “Percy's Reliques,” The Library, 4th Ser., ix (1928–29), 118.
64 Idem.
65 Hecht, op. cit., p. 66.
66 Ibid., pp. 75–76.
67 Letter of February 3, 1762. Hecht, op. cit., pp. 75–76.
68 Letter of May 16, 1762. Hecht, op. cit., pp. 79–80.
69 Letter of October 1761. Hecht, op. cit., p. 66.
70 Ibid., pp. 87–88.
71 Letter of February 22, 1762. Ibid., p. 77.
72 Ibid., p. 82.
73 Ibid., p. 84.
74 Ibid., p. 82.
75 Ibid., p. 84, note.
76 Letter of November 14, 1762. Hecht, op. cit., p. 87.
77 Reliques (ed. cit.), iii, 338.
78 Hecht, op. cit., p. 89.
79 Ibid., p. 90 In his diary Percy recorded the completion of the glossary to Volume i on Tuesday, May 16, 1764. (P. G. Thomas, “Bishop Percy and the Scottish Ballads,” L.T.L.S., xxviii [July 4, 1929], 538.) He may, however, have tentatively completed it earlier and then reopened the whole matter after Sir David Dalrymple became associated with the enterprise.
80 Letter of February 5, 1763, N & Q, 4th Ser., iii, 54.
81 Hecht, op. cit., p. [3].
82 Powell, op. cit., p. 121, note.—Why Percy selected the Countess as his patroness is not altogether clear. Interesting at least, and perhaps a significant clew, is the fact that she was a daughter of the Countess of Hertford—afterwards Duchess of Somerset—who had been a friend and correspondent of Shenstone.