+The Text+ is given in full from Herd's MSS., where it concludes with a
version of _Sweet William's Ghost_; and the last three stanzas, 42-44,
are from Scott's later version of the ballad (1833) from recitation.
Child divides the ballad as follows:-- _Clerk Sanders_, 1-26 of the
present version; _Sweet William's Ghost_, 27-41. Scott made 'one or two
conjectural emendations in the arrangement of the stanzas.'
+The Story+ of this admirable ballad in its various forms is paralleled
in one or two of its incidents by a similar collection of Scandinavian
ballads. Jamieson introduced into his version certain questions and
answers (of the prevaricating type found in a baser form in _Our
Goodman_) which are professedly of Scandinavian origin.