[246]. History of the Reformation, Knox’s Works, ed. Laing, II, 415 f. Knox continues: “But yet was not the court purged of whores and whoredom, which was the fountain of such enormities; for it was well known that shame hasted marriage betwix John Semple, called the Dancer, and Mary Livingston, surnamed the Lusty. What bruit the Maries and the rest of the dancers of the court had, the ballads of that age did witness, which we for modesty’s sake omit.” This Mary Livingston is one of the Four Marys, but, as already said, is mentioned in version F only of our ballad.
[247]. “In this set of the ballad” [D], says Motherwell, “from its direct allusion to the use of the savin tree, a clue is perhaps afforded for tracing how the poor mediciner mentioned by Knox should be implicated in the crime of Mary Hamilton.” Maidment goes further: “The reference to the use of the savin tree in Motherwell induces a strong suspicion that the lover was a mediciner.” Maidment should have remembered that there is a popular pharmacopœia quite independent of the professional. No apothecary prescribes in ‘Tam Lin.’
[248]. In an extract from Gordon’s History of Peter the Great, Aberdeen, 1755, II, 308 f.
[249]. ‘Maid-of-Honor Hamilton,’ by M. I. Semefsky, in Slovo i Dyelo (Word and Deed), 1885, St Petersburg, 3d edition, p. 187. I am indebted to Professor Vinogradof, of the University of Moscow, for pointing out this paper, and to Miss Isabel Florence Hapgood for a summary of its contents.
[250]. The parentage of these was not ascertained. Some accounts make Mary Hamilton to have been Peter’s mistress: for example [J. B. Schérer’s], Anecdotes intéressantes et secrètes de la cour de Russie, London, 1792, II, 272 ff. See also Mélanges de Littérature, etc., par François-Louis, comte d’Escherny, Paris, 1811, I, 7 f. (The white gown with black ribbons is here.)
[251]. “Hamilton, imperturbable, niait. Menzikoff engagea l’empereur à faire une perquisition dans les coffres d’Hamilton, ou l’on trouva le corps du délit, l’arrière-faix et du linge ensanglanté.” Schérer, Anecdotes, p. 274.
[252]. Bedford and Randolph to the Council, Wright’s Queen Elizabeth, etc., p. 227; Burton, History of Scotland, IV, 145.
[253]. Ruthven’s Relation, p. 30 f, London, 1699.
[254]. The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 6; Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 105 f; Tytler’s History, VII, 83.
[255]. To save appearances, we may understand “old copies” to mean copies restored or brought nearer to what is imagined to have been the original form. The variations will be given in notes as pièces justificatives.