Note 196 — PART I.

‘Maids of honour,’ instead of ‘Maries,’ in the more recent editions. Jamieson, under the word ‘Maries,’ says:—‘The designation given to the maids of honour in Scotland.... This Queen [Mary Stuart] had four maids of honour, all of the name of Mary. There were Mary Livingston, Mary Fleming—Seaton, and—Beaton. Hence it has been supposed, that the name passed into a general denomination for female attendants.... From analogy, I am much inclined to think that the term is far more ancient than the period referred to. For we learn from Lye [Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum], that the O. E. [Old English] called the queen’s maids, the Queen’s Meys. Hence it is highly probable that our term Marie is an official designation, and allied to Isl. [Icelandic] maer, a maid, a virgin.... Thus the Queen’s Maries, a phrase still common among the vulgar, may be exactly synonymous with the Queen’s Maids.’