What tidings hast thou brought me, child,

Thou art comen home so soon to me?’

9.

9.2 The line is partly cut away in the MS.: I follow the suggestion of Hales and Furnivall.

‘Good tidings, father, I have you brought,

Good tidings I hope it is to me;

The book is not in all Scotland,

But I can read it before your eye.’

10.

10.4 In the MS. the line stands: ‘To learn the speeches of all strange lands.’