Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy
by Andrew Lang
- Pages
- about 134
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2.5 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
PERSONS not much interested in, or cognisant of, “antiquarian old
womanries,” as Sir Walter called them, may ask “what all the pother is
about,” in this little tractate. On my side it is “about” the veracity
of Sir Walter Scott. He has been suspected of helping to compose, and of
issuing as a genuine antique, a ballad, Auld Maitland. He also wrote
about the ballad, as a thing obtained from recitation, to two friends and
fellow-antiquaries. If to Scott’s knowledge it was a modern imitation,
Sir Walter deliberately lied.
He did not: he did obtain the whole ballad from Hogg, who got it from
recitation—as I believe, and try to prove, and as Scott certainly
believed. The facts in the case exist in published works, and in
manuscript letters of Ritson to Scott, and Hogg to Scott, and in the
original MS. of the song, with a note by Hogg to Laidlaw. If we are
interested in the truth about the matter, we ought at least to read the
very accessible material before bringing charges against the Sheriff and
the Shepherd of Ettrick.
Whether Auld Maitland be a good or a bad ballad is not part of the
question. It was a favourite of mine in childhood, and I agree with
Scott in thinking that it has strong dramatic situations. If it is a bad
ballad, such as many people could compose, then it is not by Sir Walter.
The Ballad of Otterburne is said to have been constructed from Herd’s
version, tempered by Percy’s version, with additions from a modern
imagination. We have merely to read Professor Child’s edition of
Otterburne, with Hogg’s letter covering his MS. copy of Otterburne
from recitation, to see that this is a wholly erroneous view of the
matter. We have all the materials for forming a judgment accessible to
us in print, and have no excuse for preferring our own conjectures.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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