If there be any, his Ballad is taken from mine. I read it to Mr. Percy
some Years ago, and he (as we both considered these Things as Trifles at
best) told me, with his usual Good Humour, the next Time I saw him, that
he had taken my Plan to form the fragments of Shakespeare into a Ballad
of his own. He then read me his little Cento, if I may so call it, and I
highly approved it. Such petty Anecdotes as these are scarce worth
printing, and were it not for the busy Disposition of some of your
Correspondents, the Publick should never have known that he owes me the
Hint of his Ballad, or that I am obliged to his Friendship and Learning
for Communications of a much more important Nature. -- I am, Sir, your's
etc. OLIVER GOLDSMITH.' ('St. James's Chronicle', July 23-5, 1767.) No
contradiction of this statement appears to have been offered by Percy;
but in re-editing his 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry' in 1775,
shortly after Goldsmith's death, he affixed this note to 'The Friar of
Orders Gray:-- 'As the foregoing song has been thought to have
suggested to our late excellent poet, Dr.
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