I wonder if anyone else, browsing through the new Apophthegms of J.H.Prynne was startled by the last sentence of No.171. --
Mother make my bed soon
For I’m weary wi huntin, and fain wad lie doon.
Northumbrian border ballad; Lord Randal has been poisoned by his mother.
{The point being, if you don’t know, that over 90% of transcriptions have Lord Randal poisoned by his sweetheart, e.g. all of Child(12) save for a grandmother or two among the fragments. The notes mention the mother as the murderer in two or three Italian and German texts. Prynne’s text is not from Child, it might be Scott. )
I can think of three explanations:
1) He has made a mistake.
2) He has done it deliberately to puzzle people.
3) He has access to secret sources of knowledge.
A possible 4th explanation might lie in some depth psychological exercise by which he has “translated” sweetheart to mother as a form of commentary on the narrative. Or had been reading Portnoy’s Complaint.
PR
