Four Maries- Treat (MA) c1880 Barry BFSSNE
[My title. From BFSSNE, Vol. 3, page 8, 1931, Barry. His notes follow. Barry bases his claim on the traditional nature of this one-stanza ballad fragment on the melody alone.
R. Matteson 2015]
MARY HAMILTON.
(Child, 173)
The text and air of this fragment belong to the tradition of the ballad represented by the versions recently obtained in New Brunswick and in Virginia (Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth ; British Ballads from Maine, pp. 258-9: Davis ; Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. .122, 590). It is clearly traditional; the melody differs from the sets hitherto found. The broadside referred to in British Ballads from Maine , p. 261, is reprinted here from the copy in the Harvard University Library. See the Frontispiece.
P. B.
[Four Maries] Fragment, with the melody, sent in June, 1931, by Miss Mary C. E. Jackson of Swampscott, Mass., as sung in the 1880's by Mrs. Seville Martin Treat of Lynn.
1. Last night there were four Maries,
This night there'll be but three;
There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton
And Mary Carmichael and me.