So, late
in the sixteenth century, were the ballads quoted by Hume of Godscroft,
on the murder of the Knight of Liddesdale (1354), the murder of the
young Earl of Douglas in Edinburgh Castle (1440), and the battle of
Otterburn. Of these three, only Otterburne was recovered by Herd,
published in 1776. The other two are lost; and there is no prima facie
reason why a Maitland ballad, of the sort current in 1580, should not,
in favourable circumstances, have survived till 1802.
As regards the Shepherd's ideas of honesty in ballad-collecting at this
early period, I have quoted his letter to Laidlaw of 20th July 1802.
Again, in the case of his text from recitation of the Ballad of
Otterburne (published by Scott in The Minstrelsy of 1806), he gave the
Sheriff a full account of his mode of handling his materials, and Scott
could get more minute details by questioning him.
To this text of Otterburne, freely attacked by Colonel Elliot, in
apparent ignorance, as before, of the published facts of the case, and
of the manuscript, we next turn our attention.
Pages:
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91