474 REVIEWS — ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 



unrecorded embassy to bring home the Maid of ITor-way, daughter of King Eric, 

 on the succession to the Scottish crown opening to her in 1286, by the death of her 

 grandfather. King Alexander III, although the names of the ambassadors who did 

 go for that purpose are knoAVii to have been different. The waot of any ancient 

 manusmpt, the absence of the least trait of an ancient style of composition, the 

 palpable modernness of the diction — for example, ' Our ship must sail the faem,' 

 a glaring specimen of the poetical language of the reign of Queen Anne — and, 

 still more palpably, of several of the things alluded to, as cork-heeled shoon, hats, 

 fans, and feather-beds, together with the inapplicableness of the story to any known 

 event of actual history, never struck any editor of Scottish poetry, till, at a recent 

 dat€, Mr. David Laing intimated his suspicions that Sir Patrick Spence and Hardy- 

 knute were the production of the same author. To me it appears that there could 

 not well be more remarkable traits of an identity of authorship than what are pre- 

 sented in the extracts given from Hardyknute and the entire poem of Sir Patrick 

 — granting only that the one poem is a considerable improvement upon the other. 

 Each poem opens with absolutely the same set of particulars — a Scottish king 

 sitting — drinking the blude-red wine — and sending off a message to a subject on a 

 business of importance. Norway is brought into connection with Scotland in both 

 cases. Sir Patrick's exclamation, ' To JSToroway, to Noroway,' meets with an exact 

 counterpart in the ' To horse, to horse,' of the courtier in Hardyknute. The words 

 of the ill-boding sailor in Sir Patrick, 'Late, late yestreen, T^^aw the new moon' 

 ■ — a very peculiar expression, be it remarked — are repeated in Hardyknute : 



' Late, late the yestreen I weened in peac^. 

 To end my lengthened life.' 



The grief of the ladies at the catastrophe in Sir Patrick Spence, is equally the 

 counterpart of that of the typical Norse lady with regard to the fate of her male 

 friend at Largs. I am inclined, likewise, to lay some stress on the localities men- 

 tioned in Sir Patrick Spence — namely, Dunfermline and Aberdour — these being 

 places in the immediate neighbourhood of the mansions where Lady Wardlaw 

 spent her maiden and her matron days. A poet, indeed, often writes about places 

 which he never saw ; but it is natural for him to be most disposed to write about 

 those with wh'ch he is familiar ; and some are first inspired by the historical asso- 

 ciations connected with their native scenes. True, as has been remarked, there is 

 a great improvement upon Hardyknute in the * grand old ballad of Sir Patrick 

 Spence' as Coleridge calls it, yet not more than what is often seen in compositions 

 of a particular author at different periods of life. It seems as if the hand which 

 was stiff and somewhat puerile in Hardyknute, had acquired freedom and breadth 

 of style in Sir Patrick Spence. For all of these reasons, I feel assured that Sir 

 Patrick is a modern ballad, and suspect, or more than suspect, that the author is 

 Lady Wardlaw, 



Probably, by this time, the reader will desire to know what is now to be known 

 regarding Lady Wardlaw. Unfortunately, this is little, for, as she shrank from the 

 honours of authorship in her lifetime, no one thought of chronicling anything about 

 her. We learn that she was bora Elizabeth Halket, being the second daughter of 



