Primary Sources
C2 Day Yesterday and here Yesterday C2.59: 132
K1 Cumha Ban-righ Anne / Queen Ann’s Lament K1.10: 25
KK Cumha Ban-Righ Anne / Queen Ann’s Lament KK.37: 67
Notes on Gaelic Title
Cumha Banrìgh Anna Cumha Ban-righ Anne / Queen Ann’s Lament K1; Cumha Ban-Righ Anne / Queen Ann’s Lament KK. Lament for Queen Anne. At the time of writing, ‘Ann’ was a plebeian spelling in English, and ‘Anne’ was high-class, though presumably still one syllable. But Angus MacKay’s ‘Anne’ in Gaelic no doubt reflects the two syllables of Anna.
The subject of the lament, Queen Anne, was the last of the Stuart line (her father was James VII of Scotland and II of England) to govern the United Kingdom. She died in London on 1 August 1714, without issue. The passing of the crown to the distantly related Protestant German house of Hanover was to trigger the Jacobite Risings of 1715, 1719 and 1745-6.
‘Day Yesterday and Here yesterday’ – known elsewhere as Queen Anne’s Lament (she was the last Stuart monarch) – arises from taking the first syllables of the canntaireachd as Gaelic words and translating them into English: ‘Hin DE hin DO hio en DO’ sounds something like ‘Di an De is Seo an De’, which is the Gaelic translation of the English name.
The speech rhythm of this phrase also suggests a way of pointing the opening motif.