Four Marys- Letson (NS) 1950 Creighton A
[Fragment from Maritime Folk Songs; Creighton/Peacock, 1952.
R. Matteson 2015]
MARY HAMILTON- Sung by Miss Marguerite Letson, Port Medway, Queens County Nova Scotia, Canada; June, 1950, who learned it from her mother at Brooklyn, Queen's County.
1 Yestere'en the queen had four Marys,
The night she'll have but three,
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me.
2 How often hae I dressed my queen
And put gold on her hair,
But naught hae I gotten for all my pains,
Fell death maun be my share.
3 Oh little did my mither think
The day she cradled me
O' the lands that I should travel in
Or the death that I should die.
4 O happy, happy is the maid
That's born o' beauty free,
It was me dimplin' rosy cheeks
That hae been the dule o' me.