Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight is Child ballad 195. John, 8th Lord Maxwell, did historically kill Sir James Johnstone as the culmination of a family feud and was forced to leave Scotland to escape the death penalty. However, he came back in secret five years later. He was apprehended and beheaded.

Synopsis

Lady Maxwell asks her husband to come with her into the garden. He tells her that he killed the laird Johnstone, who killed his father, and must flee. He bids a tender farewell to her, the rest of his family, and Scotland, and is escorted off to his ship by a great company.

Further reading

• Kinsley, James, ed. (1969) The Oxford Book of Ballads. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 607-10. With an air from the Blaikie MS., p. 19, no. 55 (entitled "The King of Faeries"); text is Child 195A, from George Paton's MS., 1778.

External links

• Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight
• Historical information