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The English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Edited by Francis James Child.

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Marie Hamilton

MARY HAMILTON—J

[_]

Harris MS., fol. 10 b; “Mrs Harris and others.”

1

My mother was a proud, proud woman,
A proud, proud woman and a bold;
She sent me to Queen Marie's bour,
When scarcely eleven years old.

2

Queen Marie's bread it was sae sweet,
An her wine it was sae fine,
That I hae lien in a young man's arms,
An I rued it aye synsyne.

3

Queen Marie she cam doon the stair,
Wi the goud kamis in her hair:
‘Oh whare, oh whare is the wee wee babe
I heard greetin sae sair?’

4

‘It's no a babe, a babie fair,
Nor ever intends to be;
But I mysel, wi a sair colic,
Was seek an like to dee.’

5

They socht the bed baith up an doon,
Frae the pillow to the straw,
An there they got the wee wee babe,
But its life was far awa.

6

‘Come doon, come doon, Marie Hamilton,
Come doon an speak to me;
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

7

‘You'll no put on your dowie black,
Nor yet your dowie broun;
But you'll put on your ried, ried silk,
To shine through Edinborough toun.’
[OMITTED]

8

‘Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she'll hae but three;
There was Marie Bethune, an Marie Seaton,
An Marie Carmichael, an me.

9

‘Ah, little did my mother ken,
The day she cradled me,
The lands that I sud travel in,
An the death that I suld dee.’

10

Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she has but three;
For the bonniest Marie amang them a'
Was hanged upon a tree.