Steve Gardham wrote: Have you any evidence that Percy wrote 'Edward'? I thought the consensus was that Lord Hales palmed it off on him.

If you note my language carefully, I didn't actually say that Percy wrote it. What is clear is that he published a rewrite. :-) I don't think there is any doubt about that.

Percy credits Hailes with the source text, but the language was Percy-ized. So I think we can blame "Edward" as published on both. Hailes probably deserves the greater share of the blame, but both deserve some fault. (That said, my statement was sloppy and I wasn't doing my homework; I was just thinking of "The Percy Text.")

(Nitpick, by the way, since it matters when it comes to Percy: it is "Hailes," not "Hales," who gave Percy the ballad. Percy is associated with both a Hailes and a Hales: Lord Hailes gave him songs, while Hales, as in "Hales and Furnivall," helped publish the Percy Folio.)

As for your other comment about fakers who covered their tracks -- you are obviously right. Although that's far less of a problem now, since you don't get any academic credit for field collections....