Scottish Text Society publications > New series > Kingis quair; together with A ballad of good counsel

INTRODUCTION.
XXXVll
§ 22. The unique MS. of the Kingis Quair is in the Bod¬
leian Library at Oxford, where it is marked “ Arch. Selden,
B. 24.” It is a MS. on paper, containing numerous poems
and treatises, and, in particular, some poems by Chaucer.
The Kingis Quair begins on leaf 192, and ends on leaf 211.
It is not all in one handwriting; the hand changes at st.
178, the latter part of the poem being (at first) in a smaller
handwriting. There is also a slight change here in the sys¬
tem of spelling, but it is not sufficient to be worth a detailed
discussion. On leaf 120 of the MS. there is a reference to
King James IV. of Scotland, whose accession was in 1488 ;
and the date of the MS. itself is about 1490, or nearly
seventy years after the date of composition of the poem.
I take it to be a somewhat faulty transcript from a fairly
good original. Most of the mistakes arise from the occa¬
sional omission of words or syllables. In st. 160, 1. 4, the
scribe had a couple of words before him which he could
not read ; so he left them out. In st. 47, he repeats the
last word of 1. 4 at the end of 1. 5. The various footnotes
point out most of the scribe’s errors. It is pleasant to
see how some of the old misconceptions are cleared away.
I will cite just one example by way of specimen. In st.
24, 1. 2, we have: “ So infortunate was vs that fremyt
day.” This means, “ That strange (or adverse) day was
so unfortunate for us ” ; and vs is here the dative case,
just as tfoe is the dative case in the expression, “ O well
is thee, and happy mayst thou be.” But Tytler misprinted
we for vs, and was duly followed by Sibbald and E.
Thomson. Chalmers, indeed, alters the phrase to were
we, thus succeeding in getting two words wrong instead
of one! But what are we to think of editors who were