301
THE QUEEN OF SCOTLAND
‘The Queen of Scotland,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 46; Motherwell’s MS., p. 577.
‘The Queen of Scotland,’ Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 46; Motherwell’s MS., p. 577.
A queen in the king’s absence invites young Troy Muir to her bower and bed; he declines, and the queen resolves to do him an ill turn. She tells him that if he will lift a stone in the garden he will find in a pit under the stone gold enough to buy him a dukedom. The next morning Troy Muir lifts the stone, and a long-starved serpent winds itself round his middle. A maid comes by and allays the serpent’s rage by cutting off her pap for him. Troy Muir is immediately released and the wound in the maid’s breast heals in an hour. Troy Muir marries the maid the same day; she bears him a son, and by heaven’s grace recovers her pap thereupon.
The insipid ballad may have been rhymed from some insipid tale. Motherwell conjectured that Troy Muir stands for Triamour, but the story here has no sort of resemblance to the romance.
1‘O Troy Muir, my lily-flower,An asking I’ll ask thee;Will ye come to my bigley bowerAnd drink the wine wi me?’2‘My dame, this is too much honourYou have conferrd on me;I’m sure it’s mair than I’ve deservdFrae sic a one as thee.’3‘In Reekie’s towers I hae a bower,And pictures round it set;There is a bed that is well made,Where you and I shall sleep.’4‘O God forbid,’ this youth then said,‘That ever I drie sic blameAs ever to touch the queen’s bodie,Altho the king’s frae hame.’5When that he had these words spoken,She secretly did say,Some evil I shall work this man,Before that it be day.6Whan a’ her maids were gane to bed,And knights were gane frae hame,She calld upon young Troy Muir,To put fire in her room.7‘An asking, asking, Troy Muir,An asking ye’ll grant me;’‘O, if it be a lawful thing,My dame it’s granted be.’8‘There is a stane in yon garden,Nae are lifts it for me;But if that ye woud lift the same,A brave man I’ll ca thee.9‘Under yon stane there is a pit,Most dreary for to see,And in it there’s as much red gowdAs buy a dukedom to thee.’10‘O if I had ae sleep in bed,And saw the morning sun,As soon’s I rise and see the skies,Your will it shall be done.’11When birds did sing, and sun did rise,And sweetly sang the lark,Troy Muir to the garden went,To work this dreary wark.12He’s taen the stane then by a ring,And lifted manfullie;A serpent that lang wanted meatRound Troy Muir’s middle did flee.13‘How shall I get rid o this foul beast?It’s by it I must dee;I never thought the queen, my friend,Woud work this mischief to me.’14But by there came a weelfaird may,As Troy Muir did tauk,The serpent’s furious rage to lay,Cut aff her fair white pap.15As soon as she the same had done,Young Troy Muir was set free,And in ane hour the wound was heald,That nae mair pain had she.16Says Troy Muir, My lily-flower,Ye hae releasëd me;But before I see another day,My wedded wife ye’se be.17He married her on that same day,Brought her to his ain hame;A lovely son to him she bare,When full nine months were gane.18As heaven was pleasd, in a short time,To ease her first sad pain,Sae was it pleasd, when she’d a son,To hae a pap again.
1‘O Troy Muir, my lily-flower,An asking I’ll ask thee;Will ye come to my bigley bowerAnd drink the wine wi me?’2‘My dame, this is too much honourYou have conferrd on me;I’m sure it’s mair than I’ve deservdFrae sic a one as thee.’3‘In Reekie’s towers I hae a bower,And pictures round it set;There is a bed that is well made,Where you and I shall sleep.’4‘O God forbid,’ this youth then said,‘That ever I drie sic blameAs ever to touch the queen’s bodie,Altho the king’s frae hame.’5When that he had these words spoken,She secretly did say,Some evil I shall work this man,Before that it be day.6Whan a’ her maids were gane to bed,And knights were gane frae hame,She calld upon young Troy Muir,To put fire in her room.7‘An asking, asking, Troy Muir,An asking ye’ll grant me;’‘O, if it be a lawful thing,My dame it’s granted be.’8‘There is a stane in yon garden,Nae are lifts it for me;But if that ye woud lift the same,A brave man I’ll ca thee.9‘Under yon stane there is a pit,Most dreary for to see,And in it there’s as much red gowdAs buy a dukedom to thee.’10‘O if I had ae sleep in bed,And saw the morning sun,As soon’s I rise and see the skies,Your will it shall be done.’11When birds did sing, and sun did rise,And sweetly sang the lark,Troy Muir to the garden went,To work this dreary wark.12He’s taen the stane then by a ring,And lifted manfullie;A serpent that lang wanted meatRound Troy Muir’s middle did flee.13‘How shall I get rid o this foul beast?It’s by it I must dee;I never thought the queen, my friend,Woud work this mischief to me.’14But by there came a weelfaird may,As Troy Muir did tauk,The serpent’s furious rage to lay,Cut aff her fair white pap.15As soon as she the same had done,Young Troy Muir was set free,And in ane hour the wound was heald,That nae mair pain had she.16Says Troy Muir, My lily-flower,Ye hae releasëd me;But before I see another day,My wedded wife ye’se be.17He married her on that same day,Brought her to his ain hame;A lovely son to him she bare,When full nine months were gane.18As heaven was pleasd, in a short time,To ease her first sad pain,Sae was it pleasd, when she’d a son,To hae a pap again.
1‘O Troy Muir, my lily-flower,An asking I’ll ask thee;Will ye come to my bigley bowerAnd drink the wine wi me?’
1
‘O Troy Muir, my lily-flower,
An asking I’ll ask thee;
Will ye come to my bigley bower
And drink the wine wi me?’
2‘My dame, this is too much honourYou have conferrd on me;I’m sure it’s mair than I’ve deservdFrae sic a one as thee.’
2
‘My dame, this is too much honour
You have conferrd on me;
I’m sure it’s mair than I’ve deservd
Frae sic a one as thee.’
3‘In Reekie’s towers I hae a bower,And pictures round it set;There is a bed that is well made,Where you and I shall sleep.’
3
‘In Reekie’s towers I hae a bower,
And pictures round it set;
There is a bed that is well made,
Where you and I shall sleep.’
4‘O God forbid,’ this youth then said,‘That ever I drie sic blameAs ever to touch the queen’s bodie,Altho the king’s frae hame.’
4
‘O God forbid,’ this youth then said,
‘That ever I drie sic blame
As ever to touch the queen’s bodie,
Altho the king’s frae hame.’
5When that he had these words spoken,She secretly did say,Some evil I shall work this man,Before that it be day.
5
When that he had these words spoken,
She secretly did say,
Some evil I shall work this man,
Before that it be day.
6Whan a’ her maids were gane to bed,And knights were gane frae hame,She calld upon young Troy Muir,To put fire in her room.
6
Whan a’ her maids were gane to bed,
And knights were gane frae hame,
She calld upon young Troy Muir,
To put fire in her room.
7‘An asking, asking, Troy Muir,An asking ye’ll grant me;’‘O, if it be a lawful thing,My dame it’s granted be.’
7
‘An asking, asking, Troy Muir,
An asking ye’ll grant me;’
‘O, if it be a lawful thing,
My dame it’s granted be.’
8‘There is a stane in yon garden,Nae are lifts it for me;But if that ye woud lift the same,A brave man I’ll ca thee.
8
‘There is a stane in yon garden,
Nae are lifts it for me;
But if that ye woud lift the same,
A brave man I’ll ca thee.
9‘Under yon stane there is a pit,Most dreary for to see,And in it there’s as much red gowdAs buy a dukedom to thee.’
9
‘Under yon stane there is a pit,
Most dreary for to see,
And in it there’s as much red gowd
As buy a dukedom to thee.’
10‘O if I had ae sleep in bed,And saw the morning sun,As soon’s I rise and see the skies,Your will it shall be done.’
10
‘O if I had ae sleep in bed,
And saw the morning sun,
As soon’s I rise and see the skies,
Your will it shall be done.’
11When birds did sing, and sun did rise,And sweetly sang the lark,Troy Muir to the garden went,To work this dreary wark.
11
When birds did sing, and sun did rise,
And sweetly sang the lark,
Troy Muir to the garden went,
To work this dreary wark.
12He’s taen the stane then by a ring,And lifted manfullie;A serpent that lang wanted meatRound Troy Muir’s middle did flee.
12
He’s taen the stane then by a ring,
And lifted manfullie;
A serpent that lang wanted meat
Round Troy Muir’s middle did flee.
13‘How shall I get rid o this foul beast?It’s by it I must dee;I never thought the queen, my friend,Woud work this mischief to me.’
13
‘How shall I get rid o this foul beast?
It’s by it I must dee;
I never thought the queen, my friend,
Woud work this mischief to me.’
14But by there came a weelfaird may,As Troy Muir did tauk,The serpent’s furious rage to lay,Cut aff her fair white pap.
14
But by there came a weelfaird may,
As Troy Muir did tauk,
The serpent’s furious rage to lay,
Cut aff her fair white pap.
15As soon as she the same had done,Young Troy Muir was set free,And in ane hour the wound was heald,That nae mair pain had she.
15
As soon as she the same had done,
Young Troy Muir was set free,
And in ane hour the wound was heald,
That nae mair pain had she.
16Says Troy Muir, My lily-flower,Ye hae releasëd me;But before I see another day,My wedded wife ye’se be.
16
Says Troy Muir, My lily-flower,
Ye hae releasëd me;
But before I see another day,
My wedded wife ye’se be.
17He married her on that same day,Brought her to his ain hame;A lovely son to him she bare,When full nine months were gane.
17
He married her on that same day,
Brought her to his ain hame;
A lovely son to him she bare,
When full nine months were gane.
18As heaven was pleasd, in a short time,To ease her first sad pain,Sae was it pleasd, when she’d a son,To hae a pap again.
18
As heaven was pleasd, in a short time,
To ease her first sad pain,
Sae was it pleasd, when she’d a son,
To hae a pap again.