The Scottish ballads - National Library of Scotland

SCOTTISH BALLADS.
PART FIRST.
SIR PATRICK SPENS.*
The king sits in Dunfermline tounjf
Drinking the blude-red wine :
" O where will I get a skeilly skipper
To sail this ship o' mine ?"
O up and spak an eldren knicht,
Sat at the king's richt knee
'* Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That sails upon the sea."
* The copy here given of this touching and beautiful ballad, is chiefly
taken from that which was printed in Herd's Collection, with a few additional
verses from those found in the publications of Sir Walter Scott, and
Messrs Jamieson, Motherwell, and Buchan. We owe it to Mr Motherwell,
who gives some various readings and additional stanzas not here adopted,
that the occasion of the ballad is now known to have been the expedition
which conveyed Margaret, daughter of King Alexander III., to Norway,
in 1281, when she was espoused to Eric, king of that country. Fordoun,
in his History of Scotland, relates the incident, in a paragraph which I
" A little before this, namely,
translate for the convenience of ihe reader :
in the year 12S1, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., was married to the
King of Norway ; who, leaving Scotland on the last day of July, was conveyed
thither in noble style, in company with many knights and nobles.
In returning home, after the celebration of her nuptials, the Abbot of Balmerinoch,
Bernard of Monte alto, and many other persons, were drowned."
t The Scottish monarchs chiefly resided in their palace of Dunfermline,
from the time of Malcolm Canmore to that of Alexander III.
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