The
inference is that Scott worked on another copy, not the Sharpe copy.
If Scott had not a copy other than Sharpe's, why should he alter
Sharpe's (vii.)
The moon was up and the sun was down,
into
The sun wasna up but the moon was down?
What did he gain by that? WHY DID HE MAKE JAMIE "OF" NOT "IN" THE
DODHEAD, IF HE FOUND "IN" IN HIS COPY? "In" means "tenant in," "of"
means "laird of," as nobody knew better than Scott. Jamie is evidently
no laird, but "of" was in Scott's copy.
If the question were about two Greek texts, the learned would admit
that these points in A (Scott) are not derived from B (Sharpe).
Scott's additions have an obvious motive, they add picturesqueness to
his clan. But the differences which I have noticed do nothing of that
kind. When they affect the poetry they spoil the poetry, when they do
not affect the poetry they are quite motiveless, whence I conclude that
Scott followed his copy in these cases, and that his copy was not the
Sharpe MS.
If I have satisfied the reader on that point I need not touch on
Colonel Elliot's long and intricate argument to prove, or suggest, that
Scott had before him no copy of the ballad except one supposed by the
Colonel to have been taken by James Hogg from his mother's recitation,
while that copy, again, is supposed to be the Sharpe MS.
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