The Queen's Marie
MARY HAMILTON—S
[_]
Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott,
I, No 87, Abbotsford. Stanzas 10, 9, 12 appear in the
second volume of the Minstrelsy, 1802, p. 154, with the
variation of a couple of words, as ‘The Lament of the
Queen's Marie’ (here I b). Perhaps Finlay adopted
these three stanzas into his copy. Stanzas 1, 3, 6, 8,
with very slight variations, were printed by Finlay in
the preface to his Scottish Ballads, 1808 (O).
1
There lived a lord into the South,
An he had daughters three;
The youngest o them's gaen to the king's court,
To learn some courtesie.
2
She had na been in the king's court
A twelvemonth an a day,
When word is thro the kitchen gaen,
An likewise thro the ha,
That Mary Moil was gane wi child
To the highest steward of a'.
3
She rowd it into a basket
An flang't into the sea,
Saying, Sink ye soon, my bonny babe,
Ye'se neer get mair o me.
4
She rowd it into a basket
An flang't into the faem,
Saying, Sink ye soon, my bonny babe,
I'se gang a maiden hame.
5
O whan the news cam to the king
An angry man was he;
He has taen the table wi his foot,
An in flinders gart it flie.
6
‘O woe be to you, ye ill woman,
An ill death may ye die!
Gin ye had spared the sweet baby's life,
It might have been an honour to thee.
7
‘O busk ye, busk ye, Mary Moil,
O busk, an gang wi me,
For agen the morn at ten o clock
A rare sight ye sall see.’
8
She wadna put on her gown o black,
Nor yet wad she o brown,
But she wad put on her gown o gowd,
To glance thro Embro town.
9
O whan she cam to the Netherbow Port
She gied loud laughters three,
But whan she cam to the gallows-foot
The tear blinded her ee.
10
Saying, O ye mariners, mariners,
That sail upon the sea,
Let not my father nor mother to wit
The death that I maun die.
11
‘For little did father or mother wit,
The day they cradled me,
What foreign lands I should travel in,
Or what death I should die.
12
‘Yestreen the Queen had four Maries,
The night she'll hae but three;
There was Mary Seton, an Mary Beaton,
An Mary Carmichael, an me.’
