Parsons' Letter to Percy May 22, 1770
Reverend Sir,
Your last letter gave me infinite Pleasure, as I find what I sent was so much to your Satisfaction. You are a Perfect Epicure and express yourself so feelingly and earnestly, that I fear I shall find it difficult to feed you as you wou’d wish; however I will do all in my Power and for this Purpose have sent you three more old songs for a present supply of your appetite,- and have besides got the Promise of a Friend in Northhamptonshire (to whom I wrote for that Purpose) to procure me a further Number of them for a future treat.
The two first of the following were taken from the Singer’s mouth;- of the first I cannot help observing that the 9th 10th 11th Stanzas are remarkably like the conclusion of Your William and Margaret- a proof of the truth of Your observation how freely the old Songsters borrow’d from one another;- The Second (which does not please me so much as some others) I think I have seen in Print at some stall but I cannot say when and where.- The third Song which was written before the Year 1609 is indeed in Print, but I cou’d not forbear transcribing it, as well for its elegance & beauty as because the Book from whence I took it is rare and in few hands. I need not point out to your observation that noble thought of Despair Lingering at his Gates to let in Death & with the admirably metaphorical composition of his Couch and Staff any more than the false wit in the Last Stanzas so expressive of the age of James the first.
I shall be in Northhamptonshire sometime in June when I will procure what are now collecting and will transmit them to You.
In this as in Everything I shall always be ready to oblige you with the greatest Pleasure
who am
Rev’d Sir
Your Most Obedient
Humble Servant
Wye. May. 22. 1770 P. Parsons
P.S. I confess I think the songs of a Noble race was thinkin
and Good morrow Gossip Joan
Tho’ not very ancient, well worth preserving,-
-of the first of these I have a Translation by me
(Latin & Greek) in Manuscript most humorously
exact and the Rhyme in both correspondent to the
English, but who was the author I know not,-