The first line has been injured in the binding of the MS.; but it would seem that it should rather be read thus:
Jhesu saluator, tu sis michi auxiliator,
Ad finem dignum librum perduc atque benignum.
In all the editions of this work which I have seen, it is divided into twelve books; which are subdivided into chapters or sections, with rubrics prefixed, pointing out the principal matter of each division. I have observed the plan of the MS., which confines the work to eleven books, without any rubrics. Some, indeed, are marked on the margent; but evidently in a different hand-writing, by some early proprietor of the MS.
Mr Pinkerton has said; “The first and best edition I have yet seen is, imprentit at Edinburgh, be Robert Lekprevik, at the expensis of Henrie Charteris; and ar to be sauld in his buith, on the north syde of the gait abone the throne [trone?] Anno Do. MD. LXX. 4to. black letter. A fine copy of this edition is in the British Museum among Queen Elizabeth’s books: this has no title-page; but the second title is, The Actis and Deidis of the illuster and vailyeand Campioun Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie.” List of Scotish Poets, XC, XCI.
This edition I have never had an opportunity of inspecting. The oldest that I have seen, after every possible inquiry, is an imperfect one in quarto, formerly the property of Mr George Paton, of the Customs here, now in my possession. It wants the title-page, part of the first leaf, and the last sheet, which must have contained about fifteen pages, besides being imperfect in one or two other places. The title, printed on page first, seems to have been the same with the second title of Edit. 1570, with this difference, that in mine Wallace is denominated “the maist illuster,” &c. Besides that of 1570, Mr Pinkerton mentions only another edition in 4to, Edin. 1594. I have therefore ventured to quote this as the edition of that year.
Dr Mackenzie seems either to have been unacquainted with any prior edition, or to have preferred this to that of 1570; although, from his known character as a writer, it is most probable that he had never compared the editions to which he refers. “This book,” he says, “being highly esteem’d amongst the vulgar, has had many impressions; but the best are these, viz. that printed in the year 1594, and Andrew Hart’s, in the year 1620, both printed at Edinburgh, and that at Glasgow in the year, 1699.” &c.
Besides the edition of 1594, I have compared the MS. with Hart’s, 1620; and with one printed by Gedeon Lithgow, Edinburgh, 1648, which I have not seen mentioned by any writer. It is a neat edition, in small 8vo, black letter, pp. 343, in the square form of our more early publications. It has an introduction, entitled The Printer to the Reader, considerably larger than that prefixed to Hart’s, as it extends to nineteen pages. This contains an abridgment of the History of Scotland from the portentous death of Alexander III. A. 1285, to the year 1318. I have also consulted the Edinburgh edition of 1673, printed by Andrew Anderson, in twelves, pp. 252. This is considerably inferior in execution to the one last mentioned, although it seems to have been taken from it, with some slight changes of the orthography. The introduction to the former is reprinted verbatim; but there is added, after the Table of Contents, a poetical address of “Scrimger to Wallace, by reason of the false Menteith captive at London,” and the reply of “Wallace to Scrimger, his Baner-man.” The following page contains a curious wood-cut of Wallace in armour, with his bow and quiver.
Mr Pinkerton mentions also editions at Edinburgh 1601, Aberdeen 1630, and Glasgow 1665, in 8vo. He adds; “There are many editions of the present [eighteenth] century, but bad. The very worst is that of Edinburgh, 1758, 4to., which the printer very expertly reduced to modern spelling, and printed in black letter, and in quarto; being exactly, in every point, the very plan which he ought not to have followed. The same sagacious personage gave Barbour’s Poem in the same way; and neither selling, (how could they?) the booksellers sometimes tear out the title, and palm them upon the ignorant as old impressions.” List of Scot. Poets, ut sup.
This is the edition which is here quoted in the Notes as that of 1714. For I have been assured, on good authority, that this edition, as well as that of The Bruce, was printed by Robert Freebairn, printer to his Majesty, in the year 1714 or 1715; but that, as he engaged in the rebellion in the year last mentioned, before the work was ready for publication, they were suffered to lie in a bookseller’s ware-house till A. 1758, when they were published, either without titles, or with titles bearing the false date of this year. As to the merit of these editions, I am under the necessity of differing from Mr Pinkerton. To me, the editions printed by Freebairn appear more correct than any of the preceding ones, and his Wallace even preferable to the Perth edition, A. 1790; as, bating the liberty used with regard to the orthography, they, in a great variety of instances, give the sense of the original writers more accurately, having evidently been collated with the MSS. of The Bruce and Wallace in the Advocates’ Library.