That must be one of the last messages Malcolm posted.

Anybody who even read all the way through the Ritson version (or the others of similar length that circulated during the 18th century, I haven't checked to see how similar they all are), let alone tried to sing it, will come away feeling "be careful what you wish for because you might get it".

It's a very late example of mediaeval prolixity. That extended elegiac genre survived much longer in Gaelic than English, and I suspect it may well be a translation or reconstruction from Gaelic.