M.5.341KD.5.329Til Robin þe Roperere arose by þe sotheM.5.341: Most other B manuscripts read southe. This line is "the locus classicus for the corruption of the B archetype" (Ralph Hanna, III, Pursuing History: Middle English Manuscripts and their Texts [Stanford, 1996] p. 217. Beta manuscripts read by the southe, and the unique M reading, originally by sothe, with þe inserted, is a desperate attempt to make sense of this.
Cr1.5.337KD.5.329 Tyll Robyn the roper arose by the south
C.5.342KD.5.329 Til Robyn þe Roper aroos by þe souþe
R.5.343KD.5.329 Til robyn þe ropere arise þe southe .R.5.343: R may well represent Bx here, but the b-verse is plainly
wrong. It is obvious that the F redactor has completely recast the b-verse because of its
archtypally defective sense; in beta, the b-verse is similarly lacking, reading arose bi þe southe. Both Kane-Donaldson and Schmidt emend this verse conjecturally to
conform to the C version: aryse they
bisouhte.