This is a genuine popular
poem, but in style and tone and versification it is wholly unlike
'The Queen's Marie.' I scarcely hope that any one can produce,
after 1680, a single popular piece which could be mistaken for a
ballad of or near Queen Mary's time.
*Lockhart, i. 114, x. 138.
The known person least unlike Mr. Courthope's late 'maker' was
'Mussel-mou'd Charlie Leslie,' 'an old Aberdeenshire minstrel, the
very last, probably, of the race,' says Scott. Charlie died in
1782. He sang, and sold PRINTED ballads. 'Why cannot you sing
other songs than those rebellious ones?' asked a Hanoverian Provost
of Aberdeen. 'Oh ay, but--THEY WINNA BUY THEM!' said Charlie.
'Where do you buy them?' 'Why, faur I get them cheapest.' He
carried his ballads in 'a large harden bag, hung over his shoulder.'
Charlie had tholed prison for Prince Charles, and had seen Provost
Morison drink the Prince's health in wine and proclaim him Regent at
the Cross of Aberdeen. If Charlie (who lived to be a hundred and
two) composed the song, 'Mussel-mou'd Charlie ' ('this sang Charlie
made hissel''), then this maker could never have produced 'The
Queen's Marie,' nor could any maker like him.
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