They fetched a web o’ the silken claith,
  Another of the twine,
  And they wapped them round that gude ship’s side,
  But still the sea came in.

  O laith, laith, were our gude Scots lords
  To weet their cork-heel’d shoon! 
  But lang or a’ the play was play’d,
  They wat their hats aboon.

  And mony was the feather-bed,
  That flattered[82] on the faem;
  And mony was the gude lord’s son,
  That never mair cam hame.

  The ladyes wrang their fingers white,
  The maidens tore their hair,
  A’ for the sake of their true loves;
  For them they’ll see na mair.

  O lang, lang, may the ladyes sit,
  Wi’ their fans into their hand,
  Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
  Come sailing to the strand!

  And lang, lang, may the maidens sit,
  Wi’ their goud kaims in their hair,
  A’ waiting for their ain dear loves! 
  For them they’ll see na mair.

  O forty miles off Aberdeen,
  ’Tis fifty fathom deep,
  And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
  Wi’ the Scots lords at his feet.

[Footnote 77:  In singing, the interjection, O, is added to the second and fourth lines.]

[Footnote 78:  Skeely skipper—­Skilful mariner.]

[Footnote 79:  Gane—­Suffice.]

[Footnote 80:  Half-fou—­the eighth part of a peck.]

[Footnote 81:  Lap—­Sprang.]

[Footnote 82:  Flattered—­Fluttered, or rather floated, on the foam.]

NOTES ON SIR PATRICK SPENS.

* * * * *

  To send us out at this time of the year,
  To sail upon the sea?—­P. 8, v. 3.

By a Scottish act of parliament, it was enacted, that no ship should be fraughted out of the kingdom, with any staple goods, betwixt the feast of St. Simon’s day and Jude and Candelmas.—­James III.  Parliament 2d, chap. 15.  Such was the terror entertained for navigating the north seas in winter.

  When a bout flew out of our goodly ship.—­P. 10. v. 5.

I believe a modern seaman would say, a plank had started, which must have been a frequent incident during the infancy of ship-building.  The remedy applied seems to be that mentioned in Cook’s Voyages, when, upon some occasion, to stop a leak, which could not be got at in the inside, a quilted sail was brought under the vessel, which, being drawn into the leak by the suction, prevented the entry of more water.  Chaucer says,

“There n’is no new guise that it na’as old.”

  O forty miles off Aberdeen,—­P. 11. v. 3.

This concluding verse differs in the three copies of the ballad, which I have collated.  The printed edition bears,

  “Have owre, have owre to Aberdour;”

And one of the MSS. reads,