The authorship of Sister Peg revisited: a reply to David Raynor’s response to ‘Let Margaret Sleep’

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Abstract

In ‘The Authorship of Sister Peg', David Raynor relies on circumstantial evidence, unsubstantiated hypotheses, and subjective analysis in an effort to dispute my article ‘Let Margaret Sleep' and claim the authorship of Sister Peg for David Hume. This reply focusses instead on the large body of documentary and testimonial evidence that has surfaced during the past forty years, which overwhelmingly and convincingly supports the attribution of Sister Peg to Adam Ferguson. New documentary evidence includes Ferguson's emendations in Sir Walter Scott's copy of Sister Peg, an 1809 letter from Ferguson to Alexander Fraser Tytler and Tytler's response to it, and information about the early publishing history of the work–as well as a letter by Hume himself about his preoccupation with another project when Sister Peg was written. While no new contemporary testimonials alleging Hume's authorship have been discovered since the publication of Raynor's edition of Sister Peg in 1982, at least nine contemporary testimonials naming Ferguson as the author are now known. This reply refutes Raynor's attempts to discredit the most famous of these testimonials–the account of Ferguson's authorship in the memoirs of Alexander Carlyle–and shows that the others cannot be reduced to Carlyle’s influence.

Identifier

85149301080 (Scopus)

Publication Title

History of European Ideas

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2023.2166201

ISSN

01916599

First Page

384

Last Page

394

Issue

2

Volume

49

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