La Corbie
La Corbie, the prologue to the play Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, is a famous and powerful piece of drama. Written by Liz Lochhead (who performs her own play in our film), La Corbie is a monologue in rich Scots about Scotland and two queens from history, Mary Queen o Scots and Queen Elizabeth I of England. The narrator La Corbie, a raven or carrion crow, opens the play by asking what your Scotland is like and introducing the two queens, both grand, both different and soon to come in to conflict.
CORBIE: Country: Scotland. Whit like is it?
It’s a peatbog, it’s a daurk forest.
It’s a cauldron o lye, a saltpan or a coal mine.
If you’re gey lucky it’s a bonny, bricht bere meadow or a
park o kye.
Or mibbe…it’s a field o stanes.