Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Poems of Alexander Montgomerie

INTRODUCTION.
XXI
editorial procedure, although the value or necessity of
his alterations might often be doubted. How far Ramsay
interfered with the orthography of Hart’s edition it is
impossible to say, but it is hardly doubtful that he did
take liberties in this respect, and curiously enough
usually in the direction of giving to the language of
the poem a more Scottish complexion than it is likely
to have had in the 1615 edition. At this date, and
even a good deal earlier, the tendency to Anglicise the
spelling of books published in Scotland was strongly
marked, and there can be little doubt that Hart’s print
of “ The Cherrie and the Slae ” would be in keeping with
this rapidly growing practice. But the remarkable thing is
that the ‘ Evergreen ’ text is little if any less Scottish in
its orthography than even the earlier editions of Walde-
grave. In a number of instances, indeed, characteristic
northern spellings appear in Ramsay’s text where both
of Waldegrave’s 1597 prints have southern forms. Thus
“ come,” “ some,” “ go,” “ so,” “ of,” “ two,” “ oft-tymes,”
“ have,” “ most,” “ mo,” “ na,” “ grave,” “ deadlie,” in
Waldegrave, appear in the corresponding passages in the
‘ Evergreen ’ as “ cum,” “ sum,” “ gae,” “ sae,” “ aft,”
“ twae,” “ aftentymes,” “ haif,” “ maist,” “ mae,” “ nae,”
“ graif,” “ deidlie.” It is little likely that these spellings
were found in Hart’s edition. Forms like “ gae,” “ sae,”
“ twae,” “ mae,” “ nae,” “ aftentymes,” are, indeed, charac¬
teristic rather of Scottish orthography in Ramsay’s time
than in Montgomerie’s.
§ 13. In certain instances of grammatical usage Ramsay
would seem also to have interfered with his original texts;
but in these, contrary to his dealing with the orthography,
he gives a more modern cast to the constructions. Thus