C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Mary Hamilton

By The Ballad

1.WORD’S gane to the kitchen,

And word’s gane to the ha’,

That Marie Hamilton has born a bairn

To the highest Stewart of a’.

2.She’s tyed it in her apron

And she’s thrown it in the sea;

Says, “Sink ye, swim ye, bonny wee babe,

You’ll ne’er get mair o’ me.”

3.Down then cam the auld Queen,

Goud tassels tying her hair:

“O Marie, where’s the bonny wee babe

That I heard greet sae sair?”

4.“There was never a babe intill my room,

As little designs to be;

It was but a touch o’ my sair side,

Came o’er my fair bodie.”

5.“O Marie, put on your robes o’ black,

Or else your robes o’ brown,

For ye maun gang wi’ me the night,

To see fair Edinbro town.”

6.“I winna put on my robes o’ black,

Nor yet my robes o’ brown;

But I’ll put on my robes o’ white,

To shine through Edinbro town.”

7.When she gaed up the Cannogate,

She laugh’d loud laughters three;

But when she cam down the Cannogate

The tear blinded her ee.

8.When she gaed up the Parliament stair,

The heel cam aff her shee;

And lang or she cam down again

She was condemn’d to dee.

9.When she cam down the Cannogate,

The Cannogate sae free,

Many a ladie look’d o’er her window,

Weeping for this ladie.

10.“Make never meen for me,” she says,

“Make never meen for me;

Seek never grace frae a graceless face,

For that ye’ll never see.

11.“Bring me a bottle of wine,” she says,

“The best that e’er ye hae,

That I may drink to my weil-wishers,

And they may drink to me.

12.“And here’s to the jolly sailor lad

That sails upon the faem;

But let not my father nor mother get wit

But that I shall come again.

13.“And here’s to the jolly sailor lad

That sails upon the sea;

But let not my father nor mother get wit

O’ the death that I maun dee.

14.“Oh little did my mother think,

The day she cradled me,

What lands I was to travel through,

What death I was to dee.

15.“Oh little did my father think,

The day he held up me,

What lands I was to travel through,

What death I was to dee.

16.“Last night I wash’d the Queen’s feet,

And gently laid her down;

And a’ the thanks I’ve gotten the nicht

To be hangd in Edinbro town!

17.“Last nicht there was four Maries,

The nicht there’ll be but three;

There was Marie Seton, and Marie Beton,

And Marie Carmichael, and me.”

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