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Poem of the Month |
The last full day of our recent visit to Scotland will be one that I will long remember. It had rained every blessed day of our two week visit to northern England and Scotland. We were on the coach back to the hotel on the eve of our departure from Dunkeld, by taxi to Perth; then, by train to Glasgow; finally, by jetliner back home to Brookfield via Toronto. The sun came out, and through the coach windows we could see a vivid rainbow, crouched low to the highlands due to the high latitude and angle of the Sun. On the coach's sound system played The Skye Boat Song. It was a beautiful and moving moment, and I remember being struck at the Scots' ability to remember a tragedy through a gentle and beautiful song. The whole hope and despair of Culloden is summed up by the line in the song, "carry the lad who was born to be king, over the sea to Skye".
Celtic music, in general, and Scottish folk music in particular is chock full of such songs.
I was thinking of all this when I set out to write up a note about my favorite work of Burns. Then I heard a recording of Jean Redpath singing The Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots, and I decided, instead, to write about Burns's favorite among his own work. And, there exists ample evidence that this song was indeed Burns's favorite:
"When I would interest my fancy in the distresses incident to Humanity, I shall remember the unfortunate MARY. -- I inclose your Ladyship a poetic compliment I lately paid to the memory of our greatly injured, lovely Scottish Queen." -- R.B. to Lady Winifred Maxwell Constable, 25 April 1791
Like The Skye Boat Song, Burns's Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots pays tribute to a historic tragedy in a gentle and beautiful song. It is set to an ancient Scottish melody, composed in the haunting Mixolydian mode. We have recently added the Lament to our website's Songbook, and it is a most worthy addition.
Unfortunately, Mary Queen of Scots does not look as well to me in the cold, cruel light of history as she does in the warm glow of Burns's ballad. Mary was an ambitious but politically clumsy woman, and she found herself in several awkward situations. Finally, circumstances forced her to flee south to seek refuge in England. There she became the permanent "house guest" of Queen Elizabeth, a woman of no less ambition but considerably more adroit, politically. During her exile in England, Mary engaged herself in several intrigues against Elizabeth designed to capture the Crown for herself. The last straw was the famous attempt on Elizabeth's life involving her page. This sealed Mary's fate, and Elizabeth had her executed (with some reluctance, it seems) for treason. I have no doubt that, had Mary's and Elizabeth's circumstances been interchanged, Mary would have had no choice but to order Elizabeth's execution.
Regicide is an act that galvanizes a people, and the Scots had every right to be outraged -- Mary was, after all, their queen, and to act against a queen is to act against the whole nation. Nevertheless, despite where one stands on the historic interpretation of these events, there can be little disagreement that the Lament for Mary is one of the most beautiful and moving songs in Burns's canon.