| A. b. |
| 1 |
There 's news is gaen in the kitchen,
There 's news is gaen in the ha,
There 's news is gaen in the laigh cellar,
And that was warst of a'. |
| 2 |
There 's news is gaen in the kitchen,
There 's news is gaen in the ha',
That Mary Hamilton 's gotten a wean,
And that was warst of a'. |
31. She 's rowed.
32. She 's cuist it.
33. My bonnie bairn ga sink or swim.
34. Ye 's no hear mair.
41. Then doon.
42. Wi tasslets.
43. Cri'n, M.H., whaur's the bairn.
44. That wanting.
51. There 's no a bairn in a' the toon.
52. Nor yet.
53. 'T was but a steek in.
61. And ye maun.
64. And ye maun awa wi me the morn.
71. I 'se no.
74. To see fair.
81. And when.
83. And when.
34. tear stood in.
91. And when.
92. heel slipped off.
93. And when she cam doon the Parliament stair.
10, 11 wanting.
121. But bring: she cried.
131, 141. And here 's to the jolly sailor lad.
132, 142. sails: faem.
133. And let not my father nor mother get wit
134. that I shall come again.
143. But let, as in 133.
144. O the death that I maun dee.
15, 16 wanting.
171. auld queen's.
172. And I laid her gently.
173. I hae gotten the day.
174. Is to.
181. night the queen had.
182. This night she'll hae.
184. M. Beton and M. Seton. |
| c. |
Begins: This nicht the queen has four Maries,
Each fair as she can be;
There 's Marie Seton, etc.
31. The bairn 's tyed.
32. And thrown intill.
43. Osink.
After 3:
| |
Oh I have born this bonnie wee babe
Wi mickle toil and pain;
Gae hame, gae hame, you bonnie wee babe!
For nurse I dare be nane. |
41. Then down cam Queen Marie.
43. Saying, Marie mild, where is the babe.
51. There was nae babe.
52. There was na babe wi me.
53. o a sair cholic.
After 5 (mostly spurious):
| |
The queen turned down the blankets fine,
Likewise the snae-white sheet,
And what she saw caused her many a tear,
And made her sair to greet. |
| |
O cruel mither, said the queen,
A fiend possessed thee:
But I will hang thee for this deed,
My Marie though thou be. |
After 7:
| |
And some they mounted the black steed,
And some mounted the brown,
But Marie mounted her milk-white steed,
And rode foremost thro the town. |
83. But when.
After 12:
| |
Yestreen the queen had four Maries,
The nicht she'll hae but three;
There was M. S., and M. B.
And M. C., and me. |
13 wanting.
141. Ye mariners, ye mariners.
143. L[et] not my father and mother wit.
144. The death that I maun dee.
After 14:
| |
I was my parents' only hope,
They neer had ane but me;
They little thought, when I left hame,
They should nae mair me see. |
17 wanting.
181. there were.
Largely taken from a, 1, 2, 6-12, 15, 16 being
literally repeated. |
| B. |
33. us up.
85,6. wrongly:
And we'll ride into Edinburgh town,
High hanged thou shalt be. |
| C. |
92. Altered from I'll put on my brown.
Var. between 92 and 93:
Nor I'll no put on my suddling silks,
That I wear up and down,
up and down altered from ilka day.
101. went altered from gaed.
131, 141. Oh. |
| D. |
From two reciters, which accounts for the
alterations and insertions.
11. Altered from There was a lord lived in the north.
21. Altered from And the third.
23. Altered from that he.
41. gay added later.
42. Altered from And pued the saving tree.
43. for inserted later.
44. it inserted later.
73. a fit o inserted later.
74. Altered from I am just.
9. After 9, Motherwell wrote
A stanza wanting, and subsequently added 10, 11.
123. Originally, gold stars.
13. Originally,
She did not put on her robes of black,
Nor yet her robes of brown,
But she put on her yellow gold stars (stays?).
14. Originally,
And when she came into Edinborugh, (bad reading)
And standing at the cross,
There she saw all the coblers' wifes,
Sat greeting at the cross.
153,4. Originally, For I am come to, etc.,
Weeded for to be.
A marginal note by Motherwell, opposite the
last line, but erased, has A rich wedding to sie.
161. stair altered from close.
19, 20. Written in the margin, after those which follow.
233,4 and And, 235,
are of later insertion. |
| E. |
For the seven stanzas after 15, see No 95, II,
346. |
| F. |
3. Mary Beaton & Mary Seaton & Lady Livinston
Three we'll [or will] never meet
In queen Mary's bower
Now Maries tho ye be.
132. then cryed.
141. had your.
184. pine.
For the six stanzas after 18, see No 95, II,
346. |
| G. |
11. Oh. |
| H. |
3, 16, 17, 22 are put into smaller type as
being evidently spurious. |
| I. a. |
24 is certainly spurious, and reduces the
pathos exceedingly. |
| b. |
184. tear.
| 23 |
O ye mariners, mariners, mariners,
That sail upon the sea,
Let not my father nor mother to wit
The death that I maun die! |
|
| K. |
From Jean Macqueen, Largo, in the Manuscript
"More likely to be Largs, which is on the
Clyde, than Largo, on the east coast": note
of Mr. J.B. Murdoch.
41. Oh.
6 is the last stanza but one in the Manuscript. |
| L. |
9 might better be 1. |
| N. |
Variations.
| 13,6. |
There 's Mary Beaton, an Mary Seaton,
An Mary Carmichael, an me;
An I mysel, Queen Mary's maid,
Was flower oer a' the three. |
21. sae jimp.
23. She loved to He.
32. the savin tree.
33,4. But the little wee babe came to her back,
An forward it would be.
8 is 4 in the Manuscript. |
| O. |
"The unfortunate heroine's name is Mary Moil": Finlay, p. xix. |
