Note 20 — 58 SIR PATRICK SPENS
Reading edition
Christie, I, 7, makes up a copy from Scott and Buchan, "with some alterations from the way the editor has heard" the ballad "sung." I have not felt called upon always to register Christie's cursory variations, but the fourth stanza may be given as he prints it:
The first word that Sir Patrick read A licht licht laugh gae he; But ere he read it to an end The saut tear blint his ee.
'Sir Patrick Spens,' Aberdeen, printed by John Duffus, 1866, is composed from several versions, as Scott's, Buchan's, Aytoun's.