Mary Hamilton
Encyclopedia
"Mary Hamilton" and "The Fower Maries" are two common names for a famous, apparently fictional sixteenth-century ballad
from Scotland.
In all versions of the song, Mary Hamilton is a lady-in-waiting
to the Queen of Scots, but precisely which Queen is a mystery. She has a sexual relationship with the King of Scots that results in the birth of a child. Mary kills the infant – in some versions by drowning
, in others by exposure – and the remainder of the song recounts thoughts about her life and impending death. Most versions of the song are set in Edinburgh
, but Joan Baez
, sets her version, which is probably the best known, in Glasgow
.
Many versions of the song end (in English translation, as sung by Baez):
This would seem to indicate Mary Hamilton was one of the famous "Four Maries" chosen by Mary of Guise
, queen consort of James V, King of Scots
, to be companions to her daughter – the infant Mary, Queen of Scots – who succeeded her father when she was only six days old. Yet none of the real four Maries was a Hamilton. The surnames of the real Maries were: Beaton
, Seton
, Fleming
, and Livingston
.
Moreover, in many versions of the song, the queen is called "the auld Queen", indicating that she is middle-aged, if not older, but the reign of Mary Stuart
began six days after she was born and ended with her abdication in 1567 at the age of twenty-five; so she could not have been "the auld Queen". The term might, however, refer to precedence rather than age. Before Mary was Queen of Scots in her own right, her mother, Mary of Guise, was Queen of Scots, as consort to James V. Three generations earlier, James II's wife was also Queen Mary
.
There was a historic incident in 1719 involving one Mary Hamilton
that occurred not in Scotland – by which time the Hanovers had succeeded the Stuarts – but in Russia. In this case, Mary was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine I of Russia
and the mistress of Tsar Peter the Great and his aide-de-camp Ivan Orlov. In 1717, it was discovered that she had had two abortions, and had drowned her third infant after birth. On 14 March 1719, she was decapitated for infanticide
in St. Petersburg (Russia). It was rumoured that the sentence was so severe, because the Tsar suspected that his own paternity was involved. Mary's head was preserved and displayed in the Kunstkamera
. At that time, Charles Wogan was in Russia on a mission from James Francis Edward Stuart
, and through him news of the incident might have reached Scotland.
Since ballads of different times about different people are often recycled, many scholars speculate that the Russian story, including the name "Mary Hamilton", may have fused with the original song, which may itself have been a fusion of other earlier ballads..
The ballad was catalogued by Francis James Child
(Child Ballad # 173).
, author Virginia Woolf
alludes to the characters in the ballad. She refers by name to Mary Beton, Mary Seton, and Mary Carmichael as recurrent personae, leaving only Mary Hamilton, the narrator of the ballad, unmentioned. Mary Beton plays the prominent role in Woolf's extended essay, as she serves as the speaker.
According to her narrator in A Room of One's Own, "'I' is only a convenient term for somebody who has no real being." A few sentences later, the narrator returns to the concept of identity and subjectivity and invokes the subjects of the ballad for the first time: "Here then was I (call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please – it is not a matter of importance)..."
Mary Beton serves as the narrator throughout A Room of One's Own. The six chapters of the essay follow Mary Beton's walks through Oxbridge grounds and London streets, and her mental explorations of the history of women and fiction. The name reappears in the character of the narrator's aunt, who serves as both the namesake and benefactor of Mary Beton. Woolf is able to detach herself from the narrative voice of the essay through the use of Beton.
Mary Seton is a friend of Mary Beton at the fictitious Fernham College (modeled after Cambridge's Newnham and Girton Colleges). It is partially through her conversations with Seton that Beton raises questions about the relationship between financial wealth and the opportunities for female education. Speaking of Mary Seton's mother, the narrator states, "If she had left two or three hundred thousand pounds to Fernham, we could have been sitting at our ease tonight and the subject of our talk might have been archaeology, botany, anthropology, physics, the nature of the atom, mathematics, astronomy, relativity, geography."
Mary Carmichael plays the role of a fictitious author referenced by the narrator in A Room of One's Own. Her fabricated novel, Life's Adventure, allows Woolf to introduce the concept of female relationships. Mary Carmichael may also evoke the idea of the real author and birth-control activist Marie Carmichael (pseudonym for Marie Stopes
) and her novel Love's Creation.
Yest're'en* the Queen had fower Mary's
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
Oh little did my mother think
The day she cradled me
The lands I was to travel in
The death I was tae die*
Oh tie a napkin roon* my eyen*
No let me seen to die*
And sent me a'wa* tae my dear mother
Who's far away o'er the sea
But I wish I could lie in our ain kirkyard*
Beneath yon old oak tree
Where we pulled the rowans and strung the gowans?*
My brothers and sisters and me
Yest're'en* the Queen had fower Maries
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
But why should I fear a nameless grave
When I've hopes for eternity
And I'll pray that the faith o' a dying thief
Be given through grace tae me
Yest're'en* the Queen had fower Maries
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
from Scotland.
In all versions of the song, Mary Hamilton is a lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
to the Queen of Scots, but precisely which Queen is a mystery. She has a sexual relationship with the King of Scots that results in the birth of a child. Mary kills the infant – in some versions by drowning
Drowning
Drowning is death from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia....
, in others by exposure – and the remainder of the song recounts thoughts about her life and impending death. Most versions of the song are set in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, but Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, sets her version, which is probably the best known, in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
.
Many versions of the song end (in English translation, as sung by Baez):
-
- Last night there were four Marys;
- Tonight there'll be but three:
- There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seton
- And Mary Carmichael and Me.
This would seem to indicate Mary Hamilton was one of the famous "Four Maries" chosen by Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise was a queen consort of Scotland as the second spouse of King James V. She was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and served as regent of Scotland in her daughter's name from 1554 to 1560...
, queen consort of James V, King of Scots
James V of Scotland
James V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...
, to be companions to her daughter – the infant Mary, Queen of Scots – who succeeded her father when she was only six days old. Yet none of the real four Maries was a Hamilton. The surnames of the real Maries were: Beaton
Mary Beaton
Mary Beaton was a Scottish noblewoman and an attendant of Mary, Queen of Scots.- Family :Mary was born in 1543, the third of five children of Robert Beaton, 4th Laird of Criech and Joanna Renwall. Mary's mother was one of Marie de Guise's ladies-in-waiting...
, Seton
Mary Seton
Mary Seton was a Scottish courtier and later a nun. She was the daughter of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton, and Marie Pieris, a French-born lady-in-waiting to Marie de Guise, consort of King James V of Scotland...
, Fleming
Mary Fleming
Mary Fleming was a Scottish noblewoman and childhood companion of Mary, Queen of Scots. She and three other ladies-in-waiting were collectively known as "The Four Marys"...
, and Livingston
Mary Livingston
Mary Livingston was a Scottish noblewoman and childhood companion of Mary, Queen of Scots, one of the famous "Four Marys". As a child, she and three other girls of similar age and standing, chosen by the queen's mother, Mary of Guise, became Queen Mary's ladies-in-waiting. The other three "Marys"...
.
Moreover, in many versions of the song, the queen is called "the auld Queen", indicating that she is middle-aged, if not older, but the reign of Mary Stuart
Mary Stuart
-People:*Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan , fifth daughter of James I of Scotland, 1st Countess of Buchan*Mary, Queen of Scots , queen regnant of Scotland, wife of Francis II of France and mother of James I of England...
began six days after she was born and ended with her abdication in 1567 at the age of twenty-five; so she could not have been "the auld Queen". The term might, however, refer to precedence rather than age. Before Mary was Queen of Scots in her own right, her mother, Mary of Guise, was Queen of Scots, as consort to James V. Three generations earlier, James II's wife was also Queen Mary
Mary of Guelders
Mary of Guelders was the Queen Consort of Scotland as the wife of King James II of Scotland. She served as Regent of Scotland from 1460 to 1463.-Background:...
.
There was a historic incident in 1719 involving one Mary Hamilton
Mary Hamilton (lady in waiting)
Mary Hamilton or Maria Danilovna Gamentova , was the lady in waiting of Empress Catherine I of Russia and a royal mistress of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. She was executed for abortion, infanticide, and theft and slander of Empress Catherine...
that occurred not in Scotland – by which time the Hanovers had succeeded the Stuarts – but in Russia. In this case, Mary was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine I of Russia
Catherine I of Russia
Catherine I , the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.-Life as a peasant woman:The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Born on...
and the mistress of Tsar Peter the Great and his aide-de-camp Ivan Orlov. In 1717, it was discovered that she had had two abortions, and had drowned her third infant after birth. On 14 March 1719, she was decapitated for infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
in St. Petersburg (Russia). It was rumoured that the sentence was so severe, because the Tsar suspected that his own paternity was involved. Mary's head was preserved and displayed in the Kunstkamera
Kunstkamera
The Kunstkamera was the first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Great and completed in 1727, the Kunstkammer Building hosts the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, with a collection of almost 2,000,000 items...
. At that time, Charles Wogan was in Russia on a mission from James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
, and through him news of the incident might have reached Scotland.
Since ballads of different times about different people are often recycled, many scholars speculate that the Russian story, including the name "Mary Hamilton", may have fused with the original song, which may itself have been a fusion of other earlier ballads..
The ballad was catalogued by Francis James Child
Francis James Child
Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of folk songs known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry...
(Child Ballad # 173).
"Mary Hamilton" in A Room of One's Own
In her highly influential text, A Room of One's OwnA Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928...
, author Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
alludes to the characters in the ballad. She refers by name to Mary Beton, Mary Seton, and Mary Carmichael as recurrent personae, leaving only Mary Hamilton, the narrator of the ballad, unmentioned. Mary Beton plays the prominent role in Woolf's extended essay, as she serves as the speaker.
According to her narrator in A Room of One's Own, "'I' is only a convenient term for somebody who has no real being." A few sentences later, the narrator returns to the concept of identity and subjectivity and invokes the subjects of the ballad for the first time: "Here then was I (call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please – it is not a matter of importance)..."
Mary Beton serves as the narrator throughout A Room of One's Own. The six chapters of the essay follow Mary Beton's walks through Oxbridge grounds and London streets, and her mental explorations of the history of women and fiction. The name reappears in the character of the narrator's aunt, who serves as both the namesake and benefactor of Mary Beton. Woolf is able to detach herself from the narrative voice of the essay through the use of Beton.
Mary Seton is a friend of Mary Beton at the fictitious Fernham College (modeled after Cambridge's Newnham and Girton Colleges). It is partially through her conversations with Seton that Beton raises questions about the relationship between financial wealth and the opportunities for female education. Speaking of Mary Seton's mother, the narrator states, "If she had left two or three hundred thousand pounds to Fernham, we could have been sitting at our ease tonight and the subject of our talk might have been archaeology, botany, anthropology, physics, the nature of the atom, mathematics, astronomy, relativity, geography."
Mary Carmichael plays the role of a fictitious author referenced by the narrator in A Room of One's Own. Her fabricated novel, Life's Adventure, allows Woolf to introduce the concept of female relationships. Mary Carmichael may also evoke the idea of the real author and birth-control activist Marie Carmichael (pseudonym for Marie Stopes
Marie Stopes
Marie Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control...
) and her novel Love's Creation.
Lyrics
The Queens MariesYest're'en* the Queen had fower Mary's
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
Oh little did my mother think
The day she cradled me
The lands I was to travel in
The death I was tae die*
Oh tie a napkin roon* my eyen*
No let me seen to die*
And sent me a'wa* tae my dear mother
Who's far away o'er the sea
But I wish I could lie in our ain kirkyard*
Beneath yon old oak tree
Where we pulled the rowans and strung the gowans?*
My brothers and sisters and me
Yest're'en* the Queen had fower Maries
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
But why should I fear a nameless grave
When I've hopes for eternity
And I'll pray that the faith o' a dying thief
Be given through grace tae me
Yest're'en* the Queen had fower Maries
The nicht* she'll hae but three
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Car-Michael and me.
- 1 yest're'en – yestereven(ing) (i.e., last night)
- 2 nicht – night
- 3
- 4 roon – around
- 5 eyene – eyes
- 6 a'wa – away
- 7 ain – own
- 8 kirkyard – churchyard (cemetery)
- 9 gowans – daisies
External links
- Mary Hamilton in several variants