Bonny Earl of Murry (The)

 BONNY EARL OF MURRAY. Scottish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A 16th century ballad appearing in Thompson's Orpheus Caledoneus (1733), Thomas Percy's (1729-1811) Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), Francis Child's great ballad collection (1857, No. 181), and others. Percy notes: "In December, 1591, Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, had made an attempt to seize on the person of his sovereign James VI., but being disappointed, had retired towards the north. The king unadvisedly gave a commission to George Gordon, Earl of Huntley, to pursue Bothwell and his followers with fire and sword. Huntley, under cover of executing that commission, took occasion to revenge a private quarrel he had against James Stewart, Earl of Murray, a relation of Bothwell's. In the night of Feb. 7, 1592, he beset Murray's house, burnt it to the ground, and slew Murray himself; a young nobleman of the most promising virtues, and the very darling of the people." The ballad begins: Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands, ''Oh! Where ha'e ye been:'' They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray, And hae laid him on the green. The last line ("And...laid him on the green") was miss-heard by someone (perhaps Sylvia Wright in a 1954 article) as "And Lady Mondegreen," sparking the new nomenclature of a 'mondegreen' as any garbled line that occurs in oral transmittion of song lyrics. Printed source: Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 134.

X:1 T:Bonny Earl of Murray M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air S:Howe - 1000 Jigs and Reels (c. 1867) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G DE | G3A BA | G2D2d2 | B3A Bd | {d/e/}=f4 ed | g3e ed | e2g2DE | G3d AG | {=F}E4 de | {ga}b3a ed | e2g2DE | G3d A>B | G4 ||

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