me in return by withholding either your promised ode, or your criticism on my trifles. The glory of being the first elegiac poet in our language, though too great for me to attain, is not too great for me to attempt, since you advise it; but, even attained, how inferior is it to that line of poetry in which you so eminently excel. I can hardly endure the very thought. You see the pride of my heart: your pen, however employed, cannot be idly employed ; yet, in the comedy you mention, I could wish you not to sacrifice your own judgment too much to the taste of the town, as you hinted you should do in some degree. That indeed may be necessary. I shall be happy to be favored with a sight of it when we meet. I will not any longer intrude on your time, which will otherwise, I am sure, be much better employed; for I hope you have by this time finished the troublesome unpoetical business of your removal. MR. J. NICHOLS + TO MR. PINKERTON. Dec. 9th, 1782. The politeness of your letter would sooner have 'Discedo Alcæus puncto illius; ille meo quis? Quis nisi Callimachus; si plus adposcere visus, Fit Mimnermus, et optivo cognomine crescit.' Was ever the observation of Horace more completely exemplified? The Letter to which this is an answer has been recently been acknowledged, but that I have been this last week much hurried in business. printed in Nichols' Illustrations of Literature, vol. iii. p. 673; and, as it is necessary for rightly understanding the present, I here subjoin a copy of it. Knightsbridge, Nov. 28, 1782. "Mr. Pinkerton's compliments wait on Mr. Nichols; he mentioned to Mr. Nichols his intention of giving a second volume of Scottish Ballads, consisting of a selection of those of the comic kind, to be published along with the second edition of the Tragic Ballads, which will form a complete work in its way. But, upon considering the matter, he perceives it will be attended with very considerable labor and loss of time, which might, perhaps, be employed to much greater advantage, even if he does receive some little pecuniary recompence for his trouble. Without a previous agreement therefore, upon a reasonable value being given for the manuscript, he cannot think of undergoing the fatigue of putting his materials in order, and of carrying on a correspondence in various parts of Scotland, which must be done to procure every necessary assistance. To give Mr. Nichols some slight idea of the plan, he will please to be informed, that the volume will commence with a dissertation on the Comic Ballads, in which it is hoped some new lights will be thrown on pastoral, amatorial, and humourous poetry, all which heads fall properly under the general subject. Then will follow a selection of ballads in this style, all which will be given with a correctness not yet known in any collection of the kind; and among them will appear about a dozen never published. The work will conclude with notes and a glossary. Such will be the proposed volume, which shall be of the same size with the other; and Mr. Pinkerton imagines, that, if a thousand copies are printed, the half of the profits of the last volume will be a fair price. A thousand copies at 2s. 6d. will be 1257., of which allow 257. for expence, the half of the residue will be 501., which Mr. Pinkerton would look upon as at least some little compensation for his trouble. Mr. Nichols may let him know in answer his own sentiments; but, whether this is agreed on or not, Mr. Pinkerton will, with very great Such a collection as you speak of I should be glad to see published, and would with much pleasure be the instrument of handing it to the world. Your proposals, Sir, are very fair; but, unluckily, they are founded on a wrong calculation. Half the profit of an impression of 1000 copies you are fairly entitled to; and I should think this on both sides an equitable stipulation. But you will please to recollect that the 1000 copies are not sold by the printer at 2s. 6d. but with large deductions to the booksellers, who retail them, and also for sewing up, advertising, &c. In short, if I printed 1000 copies, I should be glad to dispose of them all at 1s. 6d. each; nor (expenses deducted) can they be set at You have now, Sir, the fair calculation; and, if you think it worth embarking in, I am ready to print the book, and put the copies in the hands. of any third person, to sell them on our joint account, and account to us justly for profit. Or, if you choose them to be mine at a certainty, I will pay you twenty guineas in a month after the book is completed at the press. I am sensible this offer is inadequate to what the performance will intrinsically deserve; yet am certain it is as much pleasure, revise the second edition of the Tragic Ballads, and do every thing else in his power for Mr. Nichols' interest.” as can be afforded. I am much obliged by your kind offer to superintend the Tragic Ballads, and shall take the liberty to trouble you with them when they pass again through the press. THE BISHOP OF DROMORE TO MR. Carlisle, Jan. 3rd, 1783. I received your very obliging letter, but unluckily mislaid it, as soon as it was perused, so that I only answer it from what I remember of the contents. I am exceedingly glad that I have it in my power to oblige you, on the subject of the old poem of King James I. of Scotland, intitled Peblis to the Play; of which, by good luck, I have the transcript here; for, in general, I have left in Northamptonshire whatever collections I had formerly made of this sort. And, indeed, my studies and attention have so long been directed to other objects, that I should not easily have come at this, if I had not had this copy with me. I formerly told you, that I had laid it by for my son (in case he chose to be editor of some supplemental volumes of the Reliques), or, if he should decline it, for a very poetical nephew of mine. You will, I hope, excuse it, therefore, if, whenever either of them undertakes a work of that sort, they should reprint this old poem, which in the interim is at your service to be inserted in any publication of yours. you I send you the copy I made myself from the old manuscript, wherein alone it is preserved. The transcript is faithfully and correctly made. I hope, therefore, you will print it without any conjectural emendations, at least in the text; and, if you propose any, you will confine them to the margin or your notes. Confronting my manuscript with the text, you will see notes Variorum, viz. of myself and also my friends, out of which, I believe, such a commentary may be gathered as will explain every obsolete phrase and obscure passage. When have made such use of it as is necessary for your intended work, I will beg you to deliver safely to me, whenever demanded for the use above mentioned, this old transcript and notes. If you think it necessary to mention in print, that you received this old piece from me, I will beg you only to quote me by the name of Dr. Percy, or rather the Editor of the Reliques of ancient Poetry, in 3 vols.; omitting Rev., much more all mention of my present title, &c. And, if necessary, you may speak of my slight poetical pursuits, as what had been the amusement of my younger years and hours of relaxation from severer studies, which, in truth, they were, as it is more than twenty years since the three volumes of Reliques, &c. were collected for the press, and even nineteen years since they were printed. And I have been so entirely drawn off from this subject by other unavoidable and necessary avocations, that Dodsley is, I believe, reprinting the book, without my being able to peruse or look at a single |