Aytoun
observed, "with much regret and not a little indignation" (1859),
"that later editors insinuated a doubt as to the fidelity of Sir
Walter's rendering. My firm belief, resting on documentary evidence,
is that Scott was most scrupulous in adhering to the very letter of
his transcripts, whenever copies of ballads, previously taken down,
were submitted to him." As an example, Aytoun, using a now lost MS.
copy of about 1689-1702, of The Outlaw Murray, says "Sir Walter has
given it throughout just as he received it." Yet Scott's copy,
mainly from a lost Cockburn MS., contains a humorous passage on
Buccleuch which Child half suspects to be by Sir Walter himself.
{15a} It is impossible for me to know whether Child's hesitating
conjecture is right or wrong. Certainly we shall see, when Scott had
but one MS. copy, as of Auld Maitland, his editing left little or
nothing to be desired.
But now Scott is assailed, both where he deserves, and where, in my
opinion, he does not deserve censure.
Scott did no more than his confessed following of Percy's method
implies, to his original text of the Ballad of Otterburne.
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