Traditional Scottish Songs
- Lament of Mary Queen of Scots
Written by Robert Burns for the Scots Musical Museum published between 1787 and 1803, it is said he wrote the words to "the ancient air, entitled "Mary Queen of Scots' Lament." He sent the ballad to a Mrs Dunlop in June 1790, knowing that she shared his sympathies for this tragic heroine of Scottish history.
Lament of Mary Queen of ScotsNow Nature hangs her mantle green
On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheet o' daisies white
Out o'er the grassy lea;
Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams,
And glads the azure skies:
But nought can glad the weary wight
That fast in durance lies.
Now laverocks wake the merry morn,
Aloft on dewy wing;
The merle, in his noontide bow'r
Makes woodland echoes ring;
The mavis wild wi' monie a note
Sings drowsy day to rest:
In love and freedom they rejoice,
Wi' care nor thrall opprest.
Now blooms the lily by the bank,
The primrose down the brae;
The hawthorn's budding in the glen,
And milk-white is the slae:
The meanest hind in fair Scotland
May rove their sweets amang;
But I, the Queen of a' Scotland,
Maun lie in prison strang.
I was the Queen o' bonie France,
Where happy I hae been;
Fu' lightly rase I in the morn,
As blythe lay down at e'en:
And I'm the sov'reign of Scotland,
And monie a traitor there;
Yet here I lie in foreign bands
And never-ending care.
But as for thee, thou false woman,
My sister and my fae,
Grim vengeance yet shall whet a sword
That thro' thy soul shall gae!
The weeping blood in woman's breast
Was never known to thee;
Nor th' balm that draps on wounds of woe
Frae woman's pitying e'e.
My son! my son! may kinder stars
Upon thy fortune shine;
And may those pleasures gild thy reign,
That ne'er wad blink on mine!
God keep thee frae thy mother's faes,
Or turn their hearts to thee;
And where thou meet'st thy mother's friend,
Remember him for me!
O! soon, to me may summer suns
Nae mair light up the morn!
Nae mair to me the autumn winds
Wave o'er the yellow corn!
And, in the narrow house of death,
Let winter round me rave;
And the next flow'rs that deck the spring
Bloom on my peaceful grave
Meaning of unusual words:
laverocks = larks
merle = blackbird
mavis = song thrush
monie = many
brae = hill, slope
slae = sloe, fruit of the whitethorn
rase = rise
thou false woman = refers to Queen Elizabeth I of England
fae = foe
My son! = refers to King James VI of Scotland
faes = foes
wad = would
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