The Four Marys- Gladden (VA) 1941 Lomax REC
[From: Texas Gladden– Ballad Legacy from the Alan Lomax Collection: Portrait; Rounder CD 1800. The CD notes follow.
This is not from tradition but rather from Alfreda Peel as sung by her grandmother, Mrs Marion Chandler, with additional stanzas from her uncle. Peel's versions were published Davis in 1929 (two fragments) and 1960 (complete version which was learned circa 1924) recorded by Davis in 1932.
I'm a bit skeptical of the "additional verses" which were added in 1924. At the bottom of this page is an excerpt from the article, On Child 76 and 173 in Divers Hands by A. H. Scouten.
R. Matteson 2015]
Texas Gladden was born in 1895 in Saltville, a small town in the south-western corner of Virginia. She had a known repertoire of some two hundred songs, all of which she visualized during her performances.
Gladden: I have a perfect mental picture of every song I sing. I have a perfect picture of every person I learned it from, very few people I don't remember. When I sing a song, a person pops up, and it's a very beautiful story. I can see Mary Hamilton, I can see where the old Queen came down to the kitchen, can see them all gathered around, and I can hear her tell Mary Hamilton to get ready, I can see the whole story, I can see them as they pass through the gate, I can see the ladies looking over their casements, I can see her as she goes up the Parliament steps, and I can see her when she goes to the gallows. I can hear her last words, and I can see all just the most beautiful picture.
We are told that Texas Gladden learnt her version of The Devil’s Nine Question from the collector Alfreda Peel, who had previously noted the songs from a Mrs Rill Martin of Mechanicsburg, VA, before passing it on to Texas. The notes, however, are unclear about where Texas learnt the ballad Mary Hamilton. Texas says that she picked it up, ‘after one hearing’. As Alfreda Peel had learnt the ballad from the singing of her grandmother, Mrs Marion Chandler who was born in Bristol, England, I suspect that this is the version that Texas Gladden later came to sing.
1. Texas Gladden: "The Four Marys"
Texas Gladden is from the mountains of Virginia, and recorded this selection in 1941 for folklorist Alan Lomax (who considered Gladden America's "finest traditional ballad singer"). In the previous version, "Mary Hamilton had a wee wain [baby] / To the highest man in the toon," which presumably refers to the King (though in some variants it is the Prince). In Gladden's version, no mention is made of an illegitimate birth, in fact no reason for Mary to murder her child is given. It is common for American versions of British ballads to omit sexual references (especially taboos such as incest and illegitimacy), as well as supernatural elements (e.g., ghosts and miracles). The tendency to avoid sexual content has led to the existence of many ballad texts in which someone murders their brother, sister, sweetheart, or child for no given reason. These two versions of "Mary Hamilton," one from each side of the Atlantic, have the same basic melody, though some variants of this ballad are performed to different tunes.
Word has come from the kitchen
And word has come to me
That Mary Hamilton drowned her babe
And throwed him into the sea.
Down came the old Queen,
Gold tassels around her head.
"Oh Mary Hamilton, where's your babe
That was sleeping in your bed?"
"Oh, Mary, put on your robe so black
And yet your robe so brown,
That you might go with me this day
To view fair Edinburgh town."
She didn't put on her robe so black,
Nor yet her robe so brown,
But she put on her snow-white robe
To view fair Edinburgh town.
As she passed through the Cannogate [Cannongate],
The Cannogate passed she,
The ladies looked over their casements and
They wept for this lady.
As she went up the Parliament steps,
A loud, loud laugh laughed she.
As she came down the Parliament steps,
She was condemned to dee [die].
"Oh, bring to me some red, red wine,
The reddest that can be,
That I might drink to the jolly bold sailors
That brought me over the sea.
"Oh tie a napkin o'er my eyes,
And ne'er let me see to dee,
And ne'er let on to my father and mother
I died way over the sea.
"Last night I washed the old Queen's feet
And carried her to her bed,
And all the reward I received for this -
The gallows hard to tread.
"Last night there were four Marys,
Tonight there'll be but three.
There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seton,
And Mary Carmichael and me."
_____________________________
On Child 76 and 173 in Divers Hands by A. H. Scouten; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 251 (Jan. - Mar., 1951), pp. 131-132.
Readers of Professor Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia will recall that Miss Alfreda M. Peel of Salem, Virginia, contributed a large number of ballad texts and tunes. In fact, one of her important "finds" was three stanzas of Child I73 ("Mary Hamilton").
In the spring of I922 she secured two versions from Mrs. Marion Chandler and in November 30, I923, she obtained the tune as well. From her interest demonstrated in connection with these texts, one might assume that Miss Peel had sent to the Ballad Society all the stanzas she could find; indeed Mr. Davis quotes her as saying this about her findings: "... which I believe are all that have been found in this country." (p. 48.) Meanwhile Miss Peel had recorded Child 95 ("The Maid Freed from the Gallows") from the singing of Mrs. Texas Gladden on May 27, 1917, in Salem. This entry is the only one in Davis's book that derives from Mrs. Gladden. But in 1941 Alan Lomax was able to secure for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress a recording in Salem from Mrs. Texas Gladden of Child 173, in ten stanzas. Since the singer apparently did not know this ballad in 1917 or as late as 1923, one's curiosity is stirred. But the question is easily resolved for us in the printed sheet issued for this recording (AAFS32B) by the editor, Dr. B. A. Botkin. In the introduction to the text, Dr. Botkin tells us that the singer "learned the song from Miss Alfreda M. Peel, of Salem."
Here a new query arises concerning where Miss Peel learned the version that she taught Mrs. Gladden. In turning to the text of Mrs. Gladden's version, the reader will find that the words bear a remarkable similarity to Child's "A" recension. The chief difference is that most of the Scotch dialect has been removed. Otherwise, her stanza 1 is Child's A 1; stanza 2 is A 4, with
the distinguishing phrase "old Queen"; stanzas 3 and 4 are A 6 and 7; stanzas 5, 6, and 7 are a blend or condensation from A Io, 8, 9, and 12. Then in stanza 5 interesting evidence appears: Mrs. Gladden sings "Cannogate," whereupon the editor inserts "Canongate" in brackets; but "Cannogate" is precisely the reading of Child A o1. In stanzas 8 and 9 appear the first intrusions; here Mrs. Gladden sings "Oh, tie a napkin o'er my eyes, /And ne'er let me see to dee." Now these two lines are from one of the two versions contributed by Miss Peel to Mr. Davis and the Ballad Society in I922. And the other lines extraneous to Child A ("And carried her to her bed" and "The Gallows hard to tread") are, respectively, Davis A 3, lines 2 and 4.