However, we need not elaborate our researches in the attempt to prove that the ballad is historical. It is certainly of English and Scottish origin, and has no parallels in the ballads of other lands. 'Haf owre to Aberdour,' _i.e._ halfway between Aberdour in Buchan and the coast of Norway, lies the island of Papa Stronsay, on which there is a tumulus called 'the Earl's Knowe' (knoll); but the tradition, that this marks the grave of Sir Patrick Spence, is in all probability a modern invention.
1. The king sits in Dumferling toune, Drinking the blude-reid wine: 'O whar will I get [a] guid sailor, To sail this schip of mine?'
2. Up and spak an eldern knicht, Sat at the king's richt kne: 'Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor That sails upon the se.'
3. The king has written a braid letter, And sign'd it wi' his hand, And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence, Was walking on the sand.
4. The first line that Sir Patrick red, A loud lauch lauched he; The next line that Sir Patrick red, The teir blinded his ee.
5. 'O wha is this has done this deid, This ill deid don to me, To send me out this time o' the yeir, To sail upon the se!
6. 'Mak haste, mak haste, my mirry men all, Our guid schip sails the morne:' 'O say na sae, my master deir, Fir I feir a deadlie storme.
7. 'Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone Wi' the auld moone in hir arme, And I feir, I feir, my deir master, That we will cum to harme.'
8. O our Scots nobles wer richt laith To weet their cork-heil'd schoone; Bot lang owre a' the play wer play'd, Thair hats they swam aboone.
9. O lang, lang may their ladies sit Wi' thair fans into their hand Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence Cum sailing to the land.
10. O lang, lang may the ladies stand, Wi' thair gold kerns in their hair, Waiting for thair ain deir lords, For they'll se thame na mair.
11. Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour, It's fiftie fadom deip, And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence, Wi' the Scots lords at his feit.
[Annotations: 1.1: 'Dumferling,' _i.e._ Dunfermline, on the north side of the Firth of Forth.]
+The Text+ is from Thomas Deloney's _Pleasant History of John Winchcomb_,[1] the eighth edition of which, in 1619, is the earliest known. 'In disgrace of the Soots,' says Deloney, 'and in remembrance of the famous atchieved historie, the commons of England made this song, which to this day is not forgotten of many.' I suspect it was Deloney himself rather than the commons of England who made this song. A variant is found in Additional MS. 32,380 in the British Museum--a statement which might be of interest if it were not qualified by the addition 'formerly in the possession of J. Payne Collier.' That egregious antiquary took the pains to fill the blank leaves of a sixteenth-century manuscript with ballads either copied from their original sources, as this from Deloney, or forged by Collier himself; he then made a transcript in his own handwriting (Add. MS. 32,381), and finally printed selections. In the present ballad he has inserted two or three verses of his own; otherwise the changes from Deloney's ballad are slight.