" {63a} We very seldom are told by Scott who the
reciters were and who the transcribers, but our critic's information is
here mournfully limited--by his own lack of study. Colonel Elliot goes
on to criticise a very curious feature in Scott's version of 1806, and
finds certain lines "beautiful" but "without a note of antiquity," that
he can detect, while the sentiment "is hardly of the kind met with in
old ballads."
To understand the position we must remember that, IN THE ENGLISH, Percy
and Douglas fight each other thus (1.) -
The Percy and the Douglas met,
That either of other was fain,
They swapped together while that they sweat,
With swords of fine Collayne. (Cologne steel.)
Douglas bids Percy yield, but Percy slays Douglas (as in Walsingham's
and other contemporary chronicles, stanzas li.-lvi.). The Scottish
losses are then enumerated (only eighteen Scots were left alive!), and
stanza lix. runs -
This fray began at Otterburn
Between the night and the day.
There the Douglas lost his life,
And the Percy was led away.
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