THE QUEEN'S MARIE. Of this affecting ballad different editions have appeared in Scott's Minstrelsy, Sharpe's Ballad Book, p. 18, Kinloch's Scottish Ballads, and Motherwell's Minstrelsy. There is also a fragment in Maidment's North Countrie Garland, which has been reprinted in Buchan's Gleanings, p. 164, and a very inferior version, with a different catastrophe, in Buchan's larger collection, (ii. 190,) called Warenston and the Duke of York's Daughter. Kinloch's copy may be found with Maidment's fragment, in the Appendix to this volume: Motherwell's immediately after the present. Sir Walter Scott conceives the ballad to have had its foundation in an event which took place early in the reign of Mary Stuart, described by Knox as follows: "In the very time of the General Assembly, there comes to public knowledge a haynous murther, committed in the court; yea, not far from the Queen's lap; for a French woman, that served in the Queen's chamber, had played the whore with the Queen's own apothecary. The woman conceived and bare a childe, whom, with common consent, the father and mother murthered; yet were the cries of a new8 VOL. III. borne childe hearde, searche was made, the childe and the mother were both apprehended, and so were the man and the woman condemned to be hanged in the publicke street of Edinburgh. The punishment was suitable, because the crime was haynous. But yet was not the court purged of whores and whoredoms, which was the fountaine of such enormities: for it was well known that shame hasted marriage betwixt John Sempill, called the Dancer, and Mary Levingston, sirnamed the Lusty. What bruit the Maries, and the rest of the dancers of the court had, the ballads of that age doe witnesse, which we for modestie's sake omit. KNOX's History of the Reformation, p. 373. "Such," Sir Walter goes on to say, 66 seems to be the subject of the following ballad, as narrated by the stern apostle of Presbytery. It will readily strike the reader, that the tale has suffered great alterations, as handed down by tradition; the French waiting woman being changed into Mary Hamilton, and the Queen's apothecary into Henry Darnley. Yet this is less surprising, when we recollect, that one of the heaviest of the Queen's complaints against her ill-fated husband, was his infidelity, and that even with her personal attendants." Satisfactorily as the circumstances of Knox's story may agree with those of the ballads, a coincidence no less striking, and extending even to the name, is presented by an incident which occurred at the court of Peter the Great. "During the reign of the Czar Peter," observes Mr. C. K. Sharpe, "one of his Empress's attendants, a Miss Hamilton, was executed for the murder of a natural child,—not her first crime in that way, as was suspected; and the Emperor, whose admiration of her beauty did not preserve her life, stood upon the scaffold till her head was struck off, which he lifted by the ears and kissed on the lips. I cannot help thinking that the two stories have been confused in the ballad; for, if Marie Hamilton was executed in Scotland, it is not likely that her relations resided beyond seas; and we have no proof that Hamilton was really the name of the woman who made the slip with the Queen's apothecary." Scott's edition of Mary Hamilton, (the first ever published,) was made up by him, from various copies. See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii. 294. MARIE HAMILTON's to the kirk gane, Wi' ribbons in her hair; The King thought mair o' Marie Hamilton, Marie Hamilton's to the kirk gane, Wi' ribbons on her breast; The King thought mair o' Marie Hamilton, Marie Hamilton's to the kirk gane, Wi' gloves upon her hands; The King thought mair o' Marie Hamilton, She hadna been about the King's court A month, but barely one, 10 Till she was beloved by a' the King's court, 15 And the King the only man. She hadna been about the King's court A month, but barely three, Till frae the King's court Marie Hamilton, Marie Hamilton durstna be. The King is to the Abbey gane, To pu' the Abbey tree, To scale the babe frae Marie's heart; But the thing it wadna be. O she has row'd it in her apron, And set it on the sea, "Gae sink ye, or swim ye, bonny babe, Ye's get nae mair o' me." Word is to the kitchen gane, And word is to the ha', And word is to the noble room, 20 25 30 Amang the ladyes a', That Marie Hamilton's brought to bed, And the bonny babe's mist and awa'. Scarcely had she lain down again, And scarcely fa'en asleep, When up then started our gude Queen, Just at her bed-feet; 85 Saying " Marie Hamilton, where's your babe? For I am sure I heard it greet." "O no, O no, my noble Queen! Think no such thing to be; 40 'Twas but a stitch into my side, And sair it troubles me." "Get up, get up, Marie Hamilton : Get up and follow me ; For I am going to Edinburgh town, A rich wedding for to see." O slowly, slowly raise she up, And slowly rode she out the way, Wi' mony a weary groan. The Queen was clad in scarlet, green; Her merry maids all in They took Marie for the Queen. "Ride hooly, hooly, gentlemen, For never, I am sure, a wearier burd But little wist Marie Hamilton, When she rade on the brown, That she was ga'en to Edinburgh town, "Why weep ye so, ye burgess wives, Why look ye so on me? OI am going to Edinburgh town, 45 50 55 60 65 |