| Lyrics: | MARY HAMILTON
Word is to the kitchen gone
And word is to the hall,
And word is
up to Madam the Queen
And that's the worst of all,
That Mary Hamilton's born a babe to the
highest Stuart of all
"Arise, arise, Mary Hamilton,
Arise and tell to me,
What
thou hast done with thy wee babe
I saw and heard weep by thee?"
"I put him in a tiny
boat,
And cast him out to sea,
That he might sink or he might swim,
But he'd never
come back to me."
"Arise, arise, Mary Hamilton,
Arise and come with me;
There
is a wedding in Glasgow town
This night we'll go and see."
She put not on her robes
of black,
Nor her robes of brown,
But she put on robes of white,
To ride into Glasgow
town.
And as she rode into Glasgow town,
The city for to see,
The bailiff's
wife and the provost's wife
Cried, "Ach, and alas for thee."
"Ah, you need not weep
for me," she cried
"You need not weep for me;
For had I not slain my own wee
babe
This death I would not dee."
"Ah, little did my mother think
When first
she cradled me,
The lands I was to travel in
And the death I was to dee."
Then
by and come the King himself,
Looked up with a pitiful eye,
"Come down, come down, Mary
Hamilton,
Tonight you'll dine with me."
"Ah, hold your tongue, my sovereign
liege,
And let your folly be;
For if you'd a mind to save my life
You'd never have
shamed me here."
"Cast off, cast off my gown," she cried,
"But let my petticoat
be,
And tie a napkin 'round my face;
The gallows I would not see."
"Last night
I washed the Queen's feet,
And put the gold on her hair,
And the only reward I find for
this,
The gallows to be my share."
"Last night there were four Marys,
Tonight
there'll be but three,
There was Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton,
And Mary Carmichael, and
me."
The ballad tale told here bears resemblance to two distinct
historical
occurences: one relating to a 16th century incident in
the court of Mary Queen of Scots, and
the other to an affair in
the court of Russia's Czar Peter in the 18th century. At
his
late date, however, oral traditrion has altered the story too
greatly to pinpoint the
exact incident on which the valland might
have been based. The long circumstantial version
given there
does not have much currency today among traditional singers; all
that usually
remains is a lyric lament in which Mary Hamilton
makes a farewell speech without any
explanation of why she is
being punished.
Printed in "British Ballads & Folk Songs" from
the Joan Baez
songbook.
Child #173
@murder @royalty
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MARYHAM1
play.exe MARYS4
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