Note 103 — 305

That the four copies of a are transcripts from writing, and not from oral recitation, will be obvious when we observe their correspondence. The first thirty stanzas of a, b, have the same lines in the same order, and with an approach to verbal agreement. There is not so close a concurrence after 30, but still a virtual concurrence, excepting that b inserts sixteen lines between 52 and 53 which the other copies lack. c has throughout the same lines as a, in the same order (with verbal differences), excepting that c introduces two lines after 504 (which are a repetition, with corruption, of 81,2), and that a repeats 43 at 60, which c does not. d has only a few verbal variations from c.