The Bonnie Earl o Murry

April 2001

Version recorded by James Madison Carpenter of Harvard from Mrs Watson Gray of Fochabers in 1931 (‘learned in Glenlivet over fifty years before’)

He’s ben an’ ben,
An ben tae his bed,
An wie a shairp rapier,
He stabbit him dead.

The ladye cam’ doon the stairs
Wringin’ her hands,
He’s slain the Earl o Moray
The floor o’ Scotland.

But Huntly lap(s) on his horse
Rade tae the king;
“Ye’re welcome hame, Huntly
An’ Whare hae ye been?

“Whare hae ye been,
An’ hoo hae ye sped?
“I’ve killed the Earl o’ moray,
Dead in his bed.”

“Noo wae be to ye, Huntly,
An wharefore did ye sae,
I bade ye bring him wie ye,
But forbade ye him tae slay.”

He was a braw gallant,
An’ he rade at the ring,
An the bonnie Earl o’ moray,
He micht hae been a king.”

He was a braw gallant,
An he played at the glove,
An’ the bonnie Earl o’ moray
He was the Queen’s love.

He was a braw gallant,
He played at the ba,’
O the bonnie Earl o’ Moray
Was the floor o’ them a’.

O lang will his ladye,
Look owre the castle doone,
Ere she see the Earl o’ Moray
Come soundin’ through the toon.¹

James M. Carpenter, ‘A Guide To The James Madison Carpenter Manuscripts. Microfilm of the Library of Congress Manuscript written by James Carpenter of the University of Harvard 1979/80’, Library of Congress Music 3109, Reel 4. [The song titles are in rough alphabetical order]. The typed transcript has handwritten alterations as in v3, line 1. There seems to be no more information on Mrs Gray on the microfilm other than that Carpenter made dictaphone recordings of her (although she seems to have provided no tunes).

Notes:

The various versions and tunes of the ballad are treated in Ian A.Olson’s ‘The Dreadful Death of the Bonny Earl of Moray. Clues from the Carpenter Song Collection’ in Folk Music Journal, 7, no 3 (1997), pages 281-310. See also The Ballad in Scottish History edited by Edward J. Cowan, (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000).

For more about the remarkable Carpenter, see Ian A.Olson’s ‘Scottish Song in the James Madison Carpenter Collection’, Folk Music Journal, 7, no 4 (1998), 421-433. The rest of this 1998 issue is also devoted to articles on Carpenter, who collected extensively in Scotland, England, Ireland and North America.

This is an article from the April 2001 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.