COUNCIL OF The Percy Society. President. THE RT. HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A. THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F.R.S., TREAS. S A. WILLIAM HENRY BLACK, Esq. J. A. CAHUSAC, Esq. F.S.A. WILLIAM CHAPPELL, Esq. F.S.A., Treasurer. J. PAYNE COLLIER, Esq. F.S.A. T. CROFTON CROKER, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. PETER CUNNINGHAM, Esq. REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. WILLIAM JERDAN, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.S.L. SIR FREDERICK MADDEN, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A. T. J. PETTIGREW, Esq. F.R S., F.S.A. E. F. RIMBAULT, Esq. F.S.A. Secretary. WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq. F.S.A. JAMES WALSH, Esq F.S.A. THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F.S.A. INTRODUCTION. THE ensuing tract has been attributed to John Skelton on the authority of Herbert, who was not aware of its existence until after he had published his edition of the "Typographical Antiquities" of Ames. He subsequently saw a copy of it in the hands of Latham, and from Latham it found its way into the library of the late Mr. Heber. Our re-impression is made from a transcript of that copy, for no other is known to be in existence. Whether "A proper new Boke of the Armonye of Byrdes" were really the authorship of Skelton, is a point which we shall probably find considered and determined in the long promised, and, we hope we may now say, speedily forthcoming edition of that author's multifarious works, under the care of the Rev. Alexander Dyce. Herbert seems to have thought that this tract was "in the manner" of Skelton, but we own that it does not strike us at all in that light; it is of too moral a turn, as well as in too modern a style, for his pen, however becoming its tendency might have been to his profession. Neither is the versification at all like that of any other production by Skelton with which we are acquainted. However, this is a point on which we do not feel well qualified to decide, and it is the less necessary that we should finally make up our mind upon the point, in as much as we are soon likely to have it decisively settled. It has never, that we are aware of, been attributed to any other author, and we are without any extrinsic evidence either way; none at least has come to our knowledge, beyond the fact that Wight was the printer of two of Skelton's admitted works, "Phillip Sparrow," and Colyn Clout." Both these are dateless, but purport to have been printed "by John Wight,” and the last of them has the same imprint as the tract now offered to the members of the Percy Society." 66 As to the date of the piece reprinted on the following pages, John Wight did not begin to print, as far as the fact can now be ascertained, until 1551, and books with his name attached to them, as a stationer, are extant dated 1588; but he appears to have left off printing on his own account early: "Ferrarius of a Common Weale," 4to. 1559, purports to have been printed, not by John Wight, but "by John Kyngston, for John Wight," and he subsequently employed as his printers, Henry Denham, John Awdeley, Thomas Dawson, John Charlewood, Thomas East, Newton and Hatfield, Edward Bollifant, Henry Bynneman, &c. As "A proper new Boke of the Armonye of Byrdes" professes to have been printed not for, but by John Wight, we may fairly presume that it came from his press between 1551, when he began, and 1559 when he left off printing in his own name. Into We believe that the poem is not only unique in itself, but unique in its kind, and on every account it deserves reprinting and preservation. whose hands it devolved on the dispersion of Mr. Heber's Library we are not informed, but before his death he gave us permission to copy it, with a view to a reimpression: his notion was, that the value of the original copy of a tract was not lessened by its being rendered accessible, but he was influenced, besides, by higher and better motives than mere pecuniary considerations.—We have good reason to know that he felt none of that literary dog-in-the-mangerism, which interferes with the employment by others of what the possessor cannot himself enjoy. |