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

xlviii
INTRODUCTION.
Tytler’s treue, the MS. reading being keye (100); irnpunis
for imp?iis (197). It will be seen, therefore, that his “cor¬
rected copy ” is really of less value than the copy which
he corrects.
D. The fourth edition is that of E. Thomson in 1815;
see description of F. below, p. 1.
E. I next notice “ The Poetic Remains of some of The
Scotish Kings, now first collected by George Chalmers,
Esq., F.R.S.A.S., &c., London, 1824.” I take this edition
to be much the worst of all; and its worthlessness is aggra¬
vated by the author’s peculiarly dishonest course of pro¬
cedure. He first quotes from Pinkerton’s Scotish Poems,
1792, p. xxxvi, a statement that Tytler’s text had been
collated with the MS., when it was said to exhibit “ upwards
of three hundred variations, most of which are essential to
the sense” (a statement which is certainly exaggerated).
He next tells us that “another attempt was made, at an
after period, by Mr David Laing, of Edinburgh, to collate
the same poem ; but he desisted, without accomplishing
his object, seeing, perhaps, the said three hundred varia¬
tions” (the italics are his). Thirdly, he tells us how he
requested the late Rev. Rogers Ruding to collate the MS.
for him; and “ he did this accordingly, and found the
printed copy to have many faults.” And having thus
prepared us for expecting great improvements, he suddenly
explains his own method of editing in the following words :
“As it is thus impossible to establish anything like uni¬
formity in the spelling of the King’s Quair, it has been
thought fit to adopt altogether the present practice of
orthography;” in other words, he proposes to use the
modern spelling throughout. But when we open the book,
we find that he has done nothing of the kind ! He actually