Hi Malcolm, it's very late to be replying to your 1971 post but I just came upon it this morning. Re: Thomas and the harping, I checked my copy of Murray (Thomas of Erceldoune printed fom 5 mss, 1875) and found that four of the five 15th c. mss have 'harping kepe I none' - not 'ken' - the fourth, Lansdowne, has 'wyll I none' - so they all give Thomas's rejection of the harp a different meaning from the one that your spelling suggests: it's not that he doesn't play the harp, but he prefers to have a magically assisted voice, rather than have his harping enhanced, because he reckons the voice is a better instrument. Where did you get your text?

All the best,
Dunlace