Lyr Req: The Laird o' Warriston (from G McCulloch)

Subject: Lyr Req: gordeanna's laird o' warriston #194
From: Roberto
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 03:47 AM

Please, help me to complete and correct this transcription. The ballad is LAIRD OF WARISTON, number 194 in F. J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.

The Laird o' Warriston
Gordeanna McCulloch, In Freenship's Name, Greentrax CDTRAX 123, 1997. From the singing of Ewan MacColl.

My mither was an ill woman
At fifteen years she married me
I hadna wit to guide a man
Alas! ill fortune guided me

O Warriston, O Warriston
I wish that ye may sink for sin!
I was but bare fifteen years auld
When first I cam your yetts within

I hadna been a month a bride
When my guid lord gaed tae the sea
I bore a bairn ere he cam hame
And sat it on the nourice's knee

Then it fell oot upon a day
That my guid lord cam fae the sea
I dressed mysel' in rich attire
As blythe as ony bird on tree

I took my young son in my airms
My Lord he hailed me courteoslie:
I'm blythe to see ye, my dear lass
But whase is that bairn at your knee?

She turnd hersel' richt roond aboot
O why think ye sae ill o me?
Ye canna ... (your young bride)
To ken ony ither man but thee

Ye lee, ye lee, my lady gay
And black's the tongue that spak the lee
I never got you with a bairn
While I was sailing on the sea

O Warriston, ye acted ill
Tae lift your hand tae your ain lady
He struck her till the blood ran doon
And cursed his bairn maist bitterly

Sair she grat as she gaed hame
And O the sault tear blint her ee
Her faither's Jock ill counselled her
It was to gar her lord tae dee

The nourice she took the deed in hand
And ... I wat her fee she won
She cast the knot and drew the (nus?)
That killed the Laird o' Warriston

Word has gane through bower and ha
And word has gane to Edinborough toon
That the lassie's killed her ain dear Lord
Aye, killed the Laird o' Warriston

O tie my kirchie roond my face
Let no the sun upon it shine
And tak me tae yon heading hill
Strike aff this dowie head o mine

They're taen her oot when nicht did fall
Nor sun nor moon on her did shine
They've taen her tae yon heading-hill
And headed her baith neat and fine

O Warriston, O Warriston
Wi yer gear an' gowd an' pride an' a'
...
And your bonnie lady's cruel doonfall

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAIRD O' WARRISTON (from G McCulloch)
From: GUEST,Folkiefrank
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 12:57 PM

Roberto, this is how it sounds to me:-

My mither was an ill woman
At fifteen years she married me
I hadna wit to guide a man
Alas! ill fortune guided me

O Warriston, O Warriston
I wish that ye may sink for sin!
I was but bare fifteen years auld
When first I cam your yetts within

I hadna been a month a bride
When my guid lord gaed tae the sea
I bore a bairn ere he cam hame
And sat it on the nurse's knee

Then it fell oot upon a day
That my guid lord cam fae the sea
I dressed mysel' in rich attire
As blythe as ony bird in tree

I took my young son in my airms
My Lord he hailed me courteoslie:
I'm blythe to see ye, my dear lass
But wha's is that bairn at your knee?

She turnd hersel' richt roond aboot
O why think ye sae ill o me?
Ye ken I was ower young a bride
To ken ony ither man but thee

Ye lee, ye lee, my lady gay
And black's the tongue that spak the lee
I never got you with the bairn
While I was sailing on the sea

O Warriston, ye acted ill
Tae lift your hand tae your ain lady
He struck her till the blood ran doon
And cursed his bairn maist bitterly

Sair she grat as she gaed hame
And O the sault tear blint her ee
Her faither's Jock ill counselled her
It was to gar her lord tae dee

The nurse she took the deed in hand
And ill I wat her fee she won
She cast the knot and drew the noose
That killed the Laird o' Warriston

Word has gane through bower and ha
And word has gane to Edinborough toon
That the lassie's killed her ain dear Lord
Aye, killed the Laird o' Warriston

O tie my kirchie roond my face
Let no the sun upon it shine
And tak me tae yon heiding hill
Strike aff this dowie heid o mine

They're taen her oot when nicht did fall
Nor sun nor moon on her did shine
They've taen her tae yon heiding-hill
And heided her baith neat and fine

O Warriston, O Warriston
Wi yer gear an' gowd an' pride an' a'
Ye bear the weight o' your ain daith
And your bonnie lady's cruel doonfall

Hope this is of some help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: gordeanna's laird o' warriston #194
From: Roberto
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 04:28 PM

Thank you, Folkiefrank. R

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: gordeanna's laird o' warriston #194
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 04:33 PM

Thanks from me as well, to both of you. Another gap in my collection closed!

Subject: RE: The Laird o' Warriston / Wariston
From: Felipa
Date: 15 Feb 23 - 05:23 PM

https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk//songs/thelairdofwariston.html relays the following information:

Ewan MacColl sang The Laird o' Wariston in 1982 on his and Peggy Seeger's Blackthorne album Blood & Roses Volume 2. They noted:

    "Jean Livingstone of Dunnipace and John Kincaid of Wariston, the two main protagonists in this prosaic domestic tragedy, were (according to contemporary accounts) married against their will at a very early age. Kincaid's consistent ill-treatment of his young wife eventually caused her to murder him. Janet Murdo, her nurse, and Robert Weir, a former servant in her father's house, helped her to carry out the deed.

   "No attempt was made to cover up the crime and within three days of having committed it Jean Livingstone was tried, found guilty and condemned to death. She was beheaded at the Canongate in Edinburgh on 5 July 1600 and Janet Murdo was burned at the stake on the same day. Robert Weir fled but was apprehended four years later and was executed by having his body broken on a cartwheel by the coulter of a plough."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Laird o' Warriston (from G McCulloch)
From: GUEST,Robert B. Waltz
Date: 16 Feb 23 - 01:34 PM

It should be noted that both the MacColl and McCulloch recordings, although very good as songs (I particularly like the McCulloch version) are somewhat dubious historically, and proof of traditional status is lacking. This is not one of the ballads I've studied in detail, but I'll cite what I found for the Ballad Index.

NAME: Laird of Wariston, The [Child 194]
DESCRIPTION: Wariston (accuses his wife of adultery and) strikes her. She avenges herself by killing him with the help of a servant. Lady Wariston is arrested and condemned. (She begs the King to lessen her sentence to beheading. He wishes she did not have to die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge adultery accusation punishment execution nobility royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 5, 1600 - Execution of the former Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston (according to Birrell)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 194, "The Laird of Wariston" (3 texts)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 114-117, "The Laird of Waristoun" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 528-533, "The Laird of Wariston" (2 texts)
DT 194, WARSTON
Roud #3876 [15 Roud entries]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird of Woodhouslie" (plot)
NOTES: [265 words] Child reports that this event is historical, but the judicial records of Lady Wariston's trial are lost. This ballad is therefore the only evidence of the motive for her murder of her husband.
This certainly appears to be a folk ballad, but it also appears to be extinct. Child knew three texts, all damaged, and the song has not been collected since. Ewan MacColl has a tune for it, but it's nearly certain that it came out of his own head. (Or, more correctly, is a modification of a tune for another ballad -- e.g. it's much like the tune I know for "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.")
Child treats this as one ballad, and given its lack of survival in tradition, there is no reason to break it up into two entries -- but I think it likely that it is in fact two ballads, one represented by Child's A and B texts and the third by his C text.
There are several reasons for this. The forms of the stanzas are different (though we might note that A and B also differ from each other). There are only a few common words, and most of them commonplace ("O Wariston, I wad that ye wad sink for sin").
Most crucial, though, is the complete difference in motive. In the A/B text, Wariston strikes his wife over a trivial quarrel. In C, however, Lady Wariston is a child bride (her age is given as fifteen at the time of her marriage; the real Lady Wariston seems to have been about nineteen). Shortly after their marriage, Wariston goes to sea; before he returns a year later, she bears a child.
Upon his return, Wariston accuses his lady of adultery and casts her out. The murder is her retaliation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: C194

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Laird o' Warriston (from G McCulloch)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 16 Feb 23 - 02:37 PM

Hi, Bob
Peter's text (Child C) is a typical Buchan concoction, in at least 2 ways, it is as usual more than twice as long as any other version, and the girl's age is lowered as in many of Peter's concoctions. Like you I am highly sceptical of the whole ballad as a traditional remnant.
If you need further convincing, there is some typical Buchan shite, the dreaming of his brother's death in stanza 12, some archaic language, e.g., sts 6/17, stanzas 24 and 26 rubbish, stanza 27 filched from Kitchie Boy, as is Peter's wont, and the final stanza is certainly not of tradition. Also, only in Peter's version does she having a child out of wedlock occur, likewise only in Peter's version is the nurse responsible for his murder. It has PB written all over it, like many another of his concoctions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Laird o' Warriston (from G McCulloch)
From: GUEST,Robert B. Waltz
Date: 16 Feb 23 - 05:41 PM

Steve Gardham wrote:

Peter's text (Child C) is a typical Buchan concoction, in at least 2 ways, it is as usual more than twice as long as any other version, and the girl's age is lowered as in many of Peter's concoctions. Like you I am highly sceptical of the whole ballad as a traditional remnant.

Excellent points all, which I had not thought about because I hadn't deeply studied the ballad. I will add your observations to the entry (with credit to you, of course). Thank you!