OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
16. Sir Patrick Spens
(Child 58)
Until a few years ago it seemed that "the grand old ballad of
Sir Patrick Spence" was extinct in American, as indeed also in
British, tradition. But in 1937 Mr. John Powell, of Virginia, pub-
lished in the first number of the Southern Folk-Lore Quarterly an
admirable text, with tune, as sung for him by Mr. George Tucker,
who learned it from his grandmother, as she had learned it from
hers, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And within the year the
same journal presented another version, this time from the singing
of Miss Clara J. McCauley, supervisor of music in the Knoxville
schools, reported by Professor E. C. Kirkland of the University
of Tennessee. This second version goes back, really, to North
Carolina ; Miss McCauley learned it from her father's singing at
their home near Chapel Hill. Professor Kirkland and the Quar-
terly have very kindly consented to our reproducing it here as part
of the ballad lore of North Carolina.
64 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
'Sir Patrick Spence.' Recorded by E. C. Kirkland in August 1937,
from the singing of Miss Clara J. McCauley.
The king he sits in Dumferling town,
A-drinking his blood-red wine,
'Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor
That ever sailed the brine.'
The king still sits in Dumferling town,
And a-sipping his red, red wine,
'Now where can I get a good sailor
To man this ship o' mine?'
Oh up then said a yellow-haired lad
Just by the king's left knee,
'Sir Patrick Spence is the best skipper
That ever sailed the sea.'
Oh up then spoke an old. old knight
Right nigh the king's right knee,
'Sir, you are the very, very best sailor
That ever sailed the sea.'
The king he wrote a good letter
And a-sealed it with his hand ;
And when Sir Patrick Spence got it
He was strolling on the sand.
Sir Patrick read the orders from the king
That made him laugh at first,
But as he read another sad line,
Sir Patrick feared the worst.
He took his ship to far Norway,
A-sailing o'er the sea.
To get a lovely maiden fair
And to fetch her back, said he.
They sailed and sailed for many a day
Upon the wild, wild sea,
But our good sailor Sir Patrick Spence
Was drowned in the deep.
So the king sits on in Dumferling town
A-drinking his blood-red wine,
'Oh, where can I get a good sailor
To sail this ship of mine?'
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Sir Patrick Spens
(Child 58)
'Sir Patrick Spence.' Sung by Miss Clara J. McCauley. Recorded by Pro-
fessor E. C. Kirkland at Sewanee, Tenn., August 1937.
Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: aa^a^b (2,2,2,2) =
aa^ (4,4). This is the second stanza.