#B.# 4. _The MS indicates that this is the nurse’s speech._ 5^1. whan _struck out_, as _written over_. 8. has _struck out_, ‘s _substituted_. 10^2. stay _struck out_, be _substituted_. 10^3. _Originally_ handkerchief; hand _struck out_. _Kinloch has made several changes in printing_: 7^1. has gane. 8^3. Fy! gar. 8^4. some brae. 9^3. gud wife. _He gives_ as _in 5^1;_ be _in 10^2;_ handkerchief _in 10^3._ #C.# 6^4. Whase. _Perhaps_, Wha’s _rather than_ Whae’s. 195 LORD MAXWELL’S LAST GOODNIGHT #A.# ‘Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight,’ communicated to Percy by G. Paton, 1778. #B.# ‘Lord Maxwell’s Goodnight,’ Glenriddell MSS, XI, 18, 1791, Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 194, 1802; II, 133, 1833. First published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, “from a copy in Glenriddell’s MS., with some slight variations from tradition.” I understand this to mean, not that the variations were derived from tradition, but that the text of the Minstrelsy departs somewhat from that of the manuscript. #A# and #B# agree entirely as to matter. The order of the stanzas, not being governed by an explicit story, might be expected to vary with every reciter. In the year 1585, John, Lord Maxwell, having incurred the enmity of the king’s favorite, the Earl of Arran, was denounced rebel, on such charges as were always at hand, and a commission was given to the Laird of Johnstone to pursue and take him. A hired force, by the aid of which this was expected to be done, was badly routed by the Maxwells in a sharp fight. Johnstone made a raid on Maxwell’s lands; Maxwell burnt Johnstone’s house. Finally, in one of their skirmishes, Johnstone was captured: “the grief of this overthrow gave Johnstone, shortly after he was liberated, his death.”