CHAPTER III

1758-1764

IT was to Anne Gooderiche that Thomas Percy addressed his famous poem,

O Nancy, wilt thou go with me?

which has become one of the most popular ballads in the English tongue. Even Scotland, who, as one of her own poets reminds us, 'in right of her ballads alone, as represented in the Border Minstrelsy of Sir Walter Scott, ranks among the most poetic nations of the world,' looked with envious eye on Percy's poem and tried to annex it. It was printed

Oh! Nannie, will ye gang wi' me?

in Johnson's Musical Magazine' and sung at Vauxhall in 1773. Robert Burns declared that, had he been acquainted with the editor, he would have prevented 'such an impudent absurdity'; he adds, 'It is too barefaced to take Dr. Percy's charming song, and by means of transposing a few English words into Scots, to offer to pass it for a Scots song.'

It was about this time that Thomas Percy's vague dreams began to assume a more definite shape, and after he had taken a leisurely survey of all the 'belles' that Northamptonshire could produce, as well as of all the fine ladies to be met with in the 'bluestocking

au no contic

enticise

salons' of the capital, they slowly began to resolve themselves into the solitary image of Anne Gooderiche. It would be rash to assert positively that any man has married his first love, even when he honestly believes it himself, but in any case it was his future wife that Percy immortalised in his first and best known ballad, unlike Sir Walter Scott who clothed Margaret of Branksome and Matilda in the form of an early love, in whom, as Lockhart tells us, the dreams of his youthful fancy found expansion for their strength, spirit, tenderness, and beauty.'

It may have been only to the eye of the poet that 'Nancy' appeared as 'fairest of the fair,' and her charms possibly had no more material existence than the 'stuff that dreams are made of.' The world saw her merely as 'a good creature,' and Fanny Burney considered her very uncultivated and ordinary, both in manners and conversation. But the evidence of her detractors need not be considered; for, after all, only those who can boast of the distinction of having realised a poet's dream for a period of nearly half a century are qualified to throw a stone at Mrs. Percy.

Optimists declare that the generality of mankind are so anxious not to disappoint any high ideal that has been formed of them, that it is only necessary to prepare a pedestal, by assuring them that they possess all the virtues, and they will by some means or other contrive to clamber up on to it, and will stand as long as faith has power to hold them there. Percy took the precaution, in his ballad, of laying down the exact qualifications necessary for the realisation of his dreams, not omitting the closing scene of his life. Mrs. Percy fulfilled all the conditions, and only failed him in the last, as her husband survived her for five years.

O Nancy, wilt thou go with me,

Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town?
Can silent glens have charms for thee,
The lowly cot and russet gown?
No longer dressed in silken sheen,
No longer decked with jewels rare;
Say, canst thou quit each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
O Nancy, when thou'rt far away,

Wilt thou not cast a wish behind?
Say, canst thou face the parching ray,
Nor shrink before the wintry wind?
Oh, can that soft and gentle mien

Extremes of hardship learn to bear,
Nor, sad, regret each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
O Nancy, canst thou love so true,

Through perils keen with me to go?
Or, when thy swain mishap shall rue,
To share with him the pang of woe?
Say, should disease or pain befall,

Wilt thou assume the nurse's care,
Nor, wistful, those gay scenes recall,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
And when at last thy love shall die,
Wilt thou receive his parting breath?
Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh,
And cheer with smiles the bed of death?
And wilt thou o'er his breathless clay
Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear?
Nor, then, regret those scenes so gay,

Where thou wert fairest of the fair?

Percy had no sooner become engaged to one who was 'in every way agreeable to him,' than his satisfaction was checked by the lady of his choice being attacked with small-pox, a complaint that placed the brilliancy of her charms' in jeopardy. On her recovery Dr. Grainger, who had prescribed to minimise the

ravages of this distressing illness, urged Percy not to delay his marriage, 'for so transitory,' he wrote, 'are the best things of this world, that in prudence we ought to leave nothing till to-morrow.' Being himself, he declared, no very violent friend to matrimony, nor indeed likely to take anyone for better or worse, it was only his conviction that Percy's union would be attended with every happiness of which the married state is capable, that made him write, 'You have already got over your scruple of being wedded, why then procrastinate?'

On April 24, 1759, Thomas Percy married Anne, daughter of Barton Gooderiche, of Desborough, near Rothwell, in the county of Northampton. She was fortunately possessed of great gentleness and tact, and was able to supply just what her husband lackedin fact, he might have anticipated the words of Victor Hugo in saying:

Dieu qui par toi m'a complété.

For Thomas Percy, it must be admitted, though a most pleasing companion and steady friend, possessed a violent temper that could not always be controlled, and Dr. Johnson, with whom he had many a stormy altercation, declared that Mrs. Percy had more sense than her husband.

Sir George Douglas has pronounced that the leading characteristics that should be kept in view in dealing with the life of Thomas Percy are his power of achieving two well-nigh impossible feats, that of idealising his own wife and of bullying Dr. Johnson.

The liberality and good taste of Percy had contributed a great deal to the comforts to be found in the little vicarage at Easton Maudit; but like his successor,

he probably begged his future wife not to raise her ideas of it too high, for no place will bear that,' adding in brackets [No gilt paper at Easton Maudit].' By his poem he suggests that she had sacrificed many of the superfluities of life for his sake. How much of this may be ascribed to poetic licence it is impossible to say, but before the honeymoon was over she had an opportunity of showing the metal she was made of. A writer of those days assures us that no two people can love each other entirely until they have shared some common trial. Like a sensible woman, Mrs. Percy probably felt reassured when the inevitable but' presented itself in a visible form amid surroundings that would otherwise have been too good for this imperfect world. It came through the misfortunes or misdoings of a fellowcreature, a form of trial that requires far more patience than any sent direct from God.

As Percy's pen was now worn down with bakers' and butchers' bills, he was reduced to begging for the four stock sermons that he shared with his cousin ; but to Mrs. Percy's credit be it remembered that every one of his great literary works was produced after his marriage. He wrote to William Cleveland from Easton Maudit on June 4, 1759:

'Death and marriage are two acts of indemnity that quit all scores; I hope, therefore, you will pardon my long silence in consideration of my being a married man and under the protection of a wife. It is about a month since I was happily united to a young lady in this neighbourhood, whose fortune will be £2000, the greatest part of which I have received down. As the honeymoon is scarcely expired, you will not depend much on my present opinion, but you will conclude my bride is possessed of great goodness, when I inform