No other of Holland's libellis, or writings, has reached our times, except the Howlat, which was first printed in the year 1792,[1] from the copy preserved in Bannatyne's Manuscript, (written in 1568 ;) but the editor appears to have been singularly unfortunate in a transcriber; numerous passages which were of themselves sufficiently obscure, having been rendered absolutely unintelligible. The text of the present edition is taken from a transcript made some years ago, but since, very carefully collated with the more ancient copy, contained in a valuable manuscript in the Auchinleck Library, which appears to have been compiled in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, (about the year 1515,) by one John Asloan, or Sloane; and which, in every respect, in so far as the Howlat is concerned, is indisputably superior to the other. The various readings afforded by a careful collation of these two manuscripts, (the only copies known to be extant,) are not of much importance; but such of them as seemed worth noticing, will be found in the Appendix, together with a few Notes, illustrative of the poem.
As the reader may be gratified to see a facsimile of the ancient manuscript, which has been followed, a few
- ↑ In the Appendix subjoined to Pinkerton's Collection of Scotish Poems, reprinted from scarce editions. London, 1792, 3 vols. post 8vo.
