[66] The Lincoln MS. has the same feature, but it is evidently copied from Laud 719.
[67] There seems also to have been an alternative numbering, which proceeded on the principle of making five books, beginning with the third, the second being treated as a general prologue to the whole poem. In connexion with this we may take the special invocation of divine assistance in the prologue of the third book, which ends with the couplet,
‘His tibi libatis nouus intro nauta profundum,
Sacrum pneuma rogans vt mea vela regas.’
[68] Fuller’s spirited translation of these lines is well known, but may here be quoted again:
‘Tom comes thereat, when called by Wat, and Simm as forward we find,
Bet calls as quick to Gibb and to Hykk, that neither would tarry behind.
Gibb, a good whelp of that litter, doth help mad Coll more mischief to do,
And Will he does vow, the time is come now, he’ll join in their company too.
Davie complains, whiles Grigg gets the gains, and Hobb with them does partake,