"Percy did publish the changed text in a later edition." Sorry, I should have thought of that possibility. But even then, isn't the source still his "ingenious friend's" proposal? On the other hand, "lying" appears in place of "dying" in Child C, which, being from William Motherwell's MS, has better credentials to be traditional. So at least Motherwell's Mrs Duff in Kilbirnie (or an earlier singer, or the publisher of some broadside or chapbook), must have thought it fitted too.
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