THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[22 May 1936]

Dear Davie

I can only quote the ordinary anthologies for the authorship of “Back & Side” as Bishop Still – but they are probably wrong.¹  G. G’s N sounds a good subject for an opera.²
So glad about April 16th.
Yrs

RVW

1.  The song ‘Back and side’ occurs in Gammer Gurton’s Needle; the song is one of the oldest drinking songs known.
2.  Gammer Gurton’s Needle, comedy possibly written in 1553 by William Stevenson but attributed in the 18th century by Isaac Reed to Bishop John Still.  Davie’s one-act opera was completed but remains unperformed (see Grove Online).