It may be proper to mention that other copies read ver. 110, thus:
"Shot frae the golden sun"
And ver. 116, as follows:
"His een like azure sheene."
N.B. The Editor's MS. instead of "lord Barnard," has "John Stewart;" and instead of "Gil Morrice," Child Maurice, which last is probably the original title. See above, p. [58].
[Gil Maurice is one of the most popular of the old ballads and it is also one of the most corrupt. The present copy is so tinkered that it is not surprising Burns regarded the ballad as a modern composition and classed it with Hardyknute, a position afterwards taken up by Robert Chambers in his pamphlet The Romantic Scottish Ballads, their epoch and authorship. The fact however that the story is preserved in the Folio MS. and also in several other forms obtained from tradition prove it to be an authentic ballad. Jamieson thinks it has all the appearance of being a true narrative of some incident that had really taken place. Motherwell devotes several pages of his Minstrelsy (pp. 257-286) to an account of the various versions. He says that tradition points out the "green wood" of the ballad in the ancient forest of Dundaff in Stirlingshire.
The request for additions mentioned above by Percy was a tempting bait eagerly caught at, and the edition of 1755 was a made up text with additional verses. Besides vv. 109-120, 125-128, which are known to be interpolations, Professor Child (English and Scottish Ballads, vol. ii. p. 38) also degrades to the foot of the page the verses from 177 to the end, on the authority of Jamieson, who says, that "having been attentive to all the proceedings in most of the trials at the bar of ballad criticism I may venture to hazard an opinion that the genuine text ends with 'ver. 176.'" Ritson and Motherwell are of the same opinion. Sir Walter Scott notes on the interpolated verses, "In the beautiful and simple ballad of Gil Morris some affected person has stuck in one or two factitious verses which, like vulgar persons in a drawing room, betray themselves by their over-finery."
The fine copy in the Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. p. 500), which Jamieson thought debased and totally unworthy of the subject, which Chambers calls "a poor, bald imperfect composition," and Mr. Hales more accurately designates as "a noble specimen of our ballad poetry in all its strength," was first printed by Jamieson (Popular Ballads and Songs, 1806, vol. i. p. 8), and is now added to the present version. The last stanza of the Folio MS. copy is identical with the last stanza but one of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, with which it seems to have some connection both in subject and name.