twenty variants. +The Story.+--Jam
Markably handsome; and Mary Hamilton, a niece,
it is supposed,
of the above minister's wife, was appointed on account
of her beauty. This Mary Hamilton had an amour with one Orlof, an aide-de-camp to the Czar; a murdered babe was found, the
guilt traced to Mary, and she and Orlof sent to prison in April 1718.
Orlof was afterwards released; Mary Hamilton
was executed on March 14, 1719. Professor
Child, in printing
this ballad in 1889, considered the details of the Russian story[1] (most of which I have omitted) to be so closely parallel
to the Scottish ballad, that he was convinced that the later story was the origin of the
ballad, and that the ballad-maker had located
it in Mary Stuart's court on his own responsibility. In September 1895 Mr. Andrew Lang
contributed
the results of his researches concerning the ballad to _Blackwood's Mag
azine_, maintaining that the
ballad must have arisen from the 1563 story, as it is too old and too good to have been written since 1718. Balancing this improbability--that the details of a Russian court scandal of 1718 should exactly correspond to a previously
extant Scottish ballad--against the improbability of the eighteenth century producing such a ballad, Child afterwards concluded the latter to be the greater. The coincidence is undoubtedly
striking; but neither the story nor the name are uncommon. [Footnote 1: See Waliszewski's _Peter the Great_ (translated by Lady Mary Loyd), vol. i. p. 251. London,
1897.] It is, of course,
possible that the story is older than 1563--it
should not be difficult to find more than one instance--and that it
was first adapted to the 1563 incident and afterwards
to the Russian scandal, the two versions being subsequently confused.
But there is no evidence for this. MARY HAMILTON 1. Word's gane to the kitchen, And word's gane to the ha', That Marie Hamilton
gangs wi' bairn To the hichest Stewart of a'. 2. He's courted her in the kitchen, He's courted her in the ha', He's
courted her in the
laigh cellar, And that was warst of a'. 3. S
it is supposed,
of the above minister's wife, was appointed on account
of her beauty. This Mary Hamilton had an amour with one Orlof, an aide-de-camp to the Czar; a murdered babe was found, the
guilt traced to Mary, and she and Orlof sent to prison in April 1718.
Orlof was afterwards released; Mary Hamilton
was executed on March 14, 1719. Professor
Child, in printing
this ballad in 1889, considered the details of the Russian story[1] (most of which I have omitted) to be so closely parallel
to the Scottish ballad, that he was convinced that the later story was the origin of the
ballad, and that the ballad-maker had located
it in Mary Stuart's court on his own responsibility. In September 1895 Mr. Andrew Lang
contributed
the results of his researches concerning the ballad to _Blackwood's Mag
ballad must have arisen from the 1563 story, as it is too old and too good to have been written since 1718. Balancing this improbability--that the details of a Russian court scandal of 1718 should exactly correspond to a previously
extant Scottish ballad--against the improbability of the eighteenth century producing such a ballad, Child afterwards concluded the latter to be the greater. The coincidence is undoubtedly
striking; but neither the story nor the name are uncommon. [Footnote 1: See Waliszewski's _Peter the Great_ (translated by Lady Mary Loyd), vol. i. p. 251. London,
1897.] It is, of course,
possible that the story is older than 1563--it
should not be difficult to find more than one instance--and that it
was first adapted to the 1563 incident and afterwards
to the Russian scandal, the two versions being subsequently confused.
But there is no evidence for this. MARY HAMILTON 1. Word's gane to the kitchen, And word's gane to the ha', That Marie Hamilton
gangs wi' bairn To the hichest Stewart of a'. 2. He's courted her in the kitchen, He's courted her in the ha', He's
courted her in the
laigh cellar, And that was warst of a'. 3. S
posted by Chucks Blog | 11:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home