The UNEDITED text of Scott's
Otterburne then contained traces of The Huntiss of Chevet; the two were
mixed in popular memory. In short, Scott's text, manipulated slightly
by him in a way which I shall describe, was A THING SURVIVING IN
POPULAR MEMORY: how confusedly will be explained.
The differences between the English version of 1550 and the Scots
(collected for Scott by Hogg), are of old standing. I am not sure that
there was not, before 1550, a Scottish ballad, which the English
ballad-monger of that date annexed and altered. The English version of
1550 is not "popular"; it is the work of a humble literary man.
The English is a very long ballad, in seventy quatrains; it greatly
exaggerates the number of the Scots engaged (40,000), and it is the
work of a professional author who uses the stereotyped prosaic stopgaps
of the cheap hack -
I tell you withouten dread,
is his favourite phrase, and he cites historical authority -
The cronykle wyll not layne (lie).
Scottish ballads do not appeal to chroniclers! A patriotic and
imbecile effort is made by the Englishman to represent Percy as
captured, indeed, but released without ransom -
There was then a Scottysh prisoner tayne,
Sir Hew Mongomery was his name;
For sooth as I yow saye,
He borrowed the Persey home agayne.
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