Lyr Req: Four Marys (from Jean Ritchie)

Subject: Lyr Add: FOUR MARYS (from Jean Ritchie)
From: Roberto
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 11:23 AM

I miss a couple of words, please help me complete the transcription (and check if there are mistakes). Thank you. Roberto

Four Marys
Jean Ritchie, The Most Dulcimer, Greenhays Recordings CR70714; ballad recorded in 1984

Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me

Last night I dressed Queen Mary
And put gold upon her hair
But all I'm to get for my reward
Is the gallows to be my share

Oh, little did my mother ken
The day she cradled me
Of the land I was to travel in
Or the death I was to dee

Oh, happy, happy is the maid
That's born of beauty free
For it was my dimple and rosy cheeks
That was the ruin of me

They'll bind a kerchief aroond my een
They'll no let me see to dee
They'll never tell my father and mother
But what I'm ... the sea

Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:14 PM

Maybe "...But what I'm drowned in the (or lost at)sea."
Does Jeannie not sing verses about Mary Hamilton drowning her baby in the sea? Or what color gown she'll be wearing in Edinb'ro' town? Or passing through the Canongate or up the Parliament steps?
I thought she did, but I'm 61 now and the little gray cells ain't what they used to be when Ol' Abe came out of the wilderness....Tw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 08:35 PM

But what I'm awa o'er the sea.

This was the version we sang at home in KY. I got other verses from Jeannie Robertson when we met in 1952, and she said the first two verses "like a poetry," and I told her to try singing them, as they were actually the first two verses of her "Four Maries." She couldn't believe it at first, tried it, then finally it fit. She was so happy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: Roberto
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 03:55 AM

Jeannie Robertson's recording in the anthology Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland, volume 2, now reissued by Rounder,recorded in 1953, begins with three stanzas that Jeannie recites, and then she starts singing, from "Yestreen there was four Marys". Jean Redpath also recites the ballad (on Lowlands. Kytrad, I thank you very much for your help. Roberto

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 09:12 PM

Yes, the 1953 recording of Jeannie Robertson was done by myself and my husband George Pickow, towards the end of my Fulbright year in the British Isles and Northern Ireland (or as we say at home,England, Scotland and Ireland). Hamish Henderson was along as friend, guide, and collector with us on behalf of his University. Alan Lomax borrowed from this collection to round out his own. And he was kind in repaying the favor when I needed one of the long ballads he got the year before (from Elizabeth Cronin) which she hadn't had time to sing for us. Hamish, Alan, Seamus Ennis, Peter Kennedy, and we two (George and I) were close friends that year, 1952-53, and were at many festivals and traditional celebrations together. A most marvellous time, and over all too soon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: Roberto
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 01:57 AM

So, kytrad is Jean Ritchie? I hadn't realized I was being helped by Jean Ritchie in person. I double thank kytrad, for the help and for the great singing and collecting. Roberto

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 02:44 AM

Yes, Roberto. Isn't it fun? I love and respect and admire many musicians at whatever stage (no pun intended) of their lives they are in, but it is a treat indeed to have some classic deep-dyed pros here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: Lady Hillary
Date: 29 Jul 06 - 11:56 PM

The incident is referred to in Robert K. Massie's "Peter the Great," pp.812-813. ..."If Peter was tolerant of indiscretion, he was implacable in criminal matters. Prenatal abortion or the murdr of an unwanted infant after birth was punishable by death. The most dramatic example of the Tsar's unwavering hand on this issue came with the case of Marie Hamilton. This young woman, of the Tsaritsa Catherine's favorite Maids of honor, was, in the language of the day, "much addicted to gallantry." In consequence, she bore threee illegitimate children. The first two were murdered in such secrecy that no one at court suspected, but the third dead infant was discovered and the mother arrested. In prison, she confessed that this was the third time this mournful event had occurred. to her surprise, for she believed that the friendship and favor of the Tsar and the Tsaritsa would win her a pardon, she was sentenced to death..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Ritchie's Four Marys
From: GUEST,Kevin Rietmann
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:43 PM

I imagine drinkingsongs.net is familiar to some of you. Go to the Download All My MP3s section and cue up the Four Marys, which isn't a parody or risque version, but rather a detailed account from the singer, "Mrs. T," of how her family (presumably Canadian) had the song and she never heard it other than there until going to Scotland in the military. Perhaps more of her material will be of interest.