THE FOUR MARYS 

Last night there were four Marys,

Tonight there'll be but three,

There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton

And Mary Carmichael and me.

Oh, often have I dressed my Queen

And put on her braw silk gown,

But all the thanks I've got tonight

Is to be hanged in Edinburgh Town.

Full often have I dressed my Queen,

Put gold upon her hair,

But I have got for my reward

The gallows to be my share.

Oh, little did my mother know

The day she cradled me

The land I was to travel in,

The death I was to dee.

Oh, happy, happy is the maid

That's born of beauty free,

Oh, it was my rosy, dimpled cheeks

That's been the devil to me.

They'll tie a kerchief around my eyes

That I may not see to dee

And they'll never tell my father or mother

But that I'm across the sea.

The four Marys were all the Queen of Scots' ladies-in-waiting and their names were Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston. There was no Mary Carmichael but the poem above has been traced back to the court of the Tsar. The ballad dates between 1719 and 1764 and tells the story of Mary Hamilton, a Scottish maid of Peter the Great's wife Catherine, who was executed for the murder of her illegitimate child, the product of an affair with the Tsar Peter. It appears that the two stories of Mary Hamilton and Mary, Queen of Scots were grafted on to each other.

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