II. The consideration of the opinion that Lady Wardlaw was the author of Sir Patrick Spence and other ballads, need not detain us long, because the main point of interest is their authenticity, and the question of her authorship is quite a secondary matter: that falls to the ground if the grand charge is proved false, and need not stand even if that remains unrefuted. The only reason for fixing upon Lady Wardlaw appears to have been that as these ballads were transmitted to Percy by Lord Hailes, and one of them was an imitation of the antique by Lady Wardlaw, and another was added to by the same lady, therefore if a similarity between the ballads could be proved, it would follow that all were written by her. Now the very fact that the authorship of Hardyknute was soon discovered is strong evidence against any such supposition, because none of her associates had any suspicion that she had counterfeited other ballads, and could such a wholesale manufacture have been concealed for a century it would be a greater mystery than the vexed question, who was Junius? The other point, whether the author of the indistinct and redundant Hardyknute could have written the clear and incisive lines of Sir Patrick Spence may be left to be decided by readers who have the two poems before them in these volumes.
A few particulars may, however, be mentioned. The openings of these ballads form excellent contrasted examples of the two different styles of ballad writing. Sir Patrick Spence commences at once, like other minstrel ballads, with the description of the king and his council:—
"The king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
O quhar will I get guid sailòr
To sail this schip of mine?
Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the kings richt kne:
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr,
That sails upon the se."
The king then sends a letter to Spence. There is no description of how this was sent, but we at once read:—
"The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauched he;
The next line that Sir Patrick red,
The teir blinded his ee."
Hardyknute, on the other hand, is full of reasons and illustrative instances in the true ballad-writer's style:—
"Stately stept he east the wa',
And stately stept he west,
Full seventy years he now had seen
Wi' scarce seven years of rest.
He liv'd when Britons breach of faith
Wrought Scotland mickle wae:
And ay his sword tauld to their cost,
He was their deadlye fae."
Having placed the openings of the two poems in opposition, we will do the same with the endings. How different is the grand finish of Sir Patrick Spence—
"Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,
It's fiftie fadom deip,
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit."