Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from An Investigation of the Rimes and Phonology of the Middle-Scotch Romance Clariodus: A Contribution to the History of the English Language in Scotland
Date. With regard to the original date of composition, Irving's conjecture seems to me to place it somewhat too early; his remarks about the phraseology are Open to question. I should consider it to agree more with that of Lyndes. Than with that of Henry the Minstrel. The very quantity of Latin French words noticed by Irving connects it more with the l6th than with the 15th century. Trautmann assigns to Gol. A date some where about 1500, and the language of Clar. Certainly has a more modern stamp than Gol.; it is less thoroughly Scotch and contains more French and Latin words. It might very well be placed by the side Of Douglas' and Dunbar's poems, with the former of which it shows great resemblance in the number of Anglicisms in pronunciation. Reasons will be found in the course Of the following pages for dating not earlier than 1500. But the question of date must be left doubtful, until we have more exact criteria for deciding it. We must allow some time perhaps to have elapsed since the original composition before the date of the ms, by which time the poem has evidently gone through several hands; it shows far too many corruptions for the assumption that one copyist is responsible for them, and besides we shall see below that there are orthographical differences which Show that in one stage at least two hands were employed in the coming of different parts of it. Prof. Biilbring tells me that the present ms. Is all by one hand. Assuming Irving's date of the ms. To be correct, I would set the date of original composition about the middle of the first half of the l6th century; this agrees fairly well with the few criteria we have as yet to go upon.
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