University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Edited by Francis James Child.

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVII. 
collapse sectionVIII. 
expand section226. 
expand section227. 
expand section228. 
expand section229. 
expand section230. 
expand section231. 
expand section232. 
expand section233. 
expand section234. 
expand section235. 
expand section236. 
expand section237. 
expand section238. 
expand section239. 
expand section240. 
expand section241. 
expand section242. 
collapse section243. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section244. 
expand section245. 
expand section246. 
expand section247. 
expand section248. 
expand section249. 
expand section250. 
expand section251. 
expand section252. 
expand section253. 
expand section254. 
expand section255. 
expand section256. 
expand section257. 
expand section258. 
expand section259. 
expand section260. 
expand section261. 
expand section262. 
expand section263. 
expand section264. 
expand section265. 
expand sectionIX. 

The Cruel Mother

THE CRUEL MOTHER—D

[_]

a. Kinloch's MSS, v, 103, in the handwriting of James Beattie. b. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 46: from the recitation of Miss C. Beattie.

1

There lives a lady in London,
All alone and alone ee
She's gane wi bairn to the clerk's son.
Down by the green wood sae bonnie

2

She's taen her mantle her about,
She's gane aff to the gude green wood.

3

She's set her back untill an oak,
First it bowed and then it broke.

4

She's set her back untill a tree,
Bonny were the twa boys she did bear.

5

But she took out a little pen-knife,
And she parted them and their sweet life.

6

She's aff untill her father's ha;
She was the lealest maiden that was amang them a'.

7

As she lookit oure the castle wa,
She spied twa bonnie boys playing at the ba.

8

‘O if these two babes were mine,
They should wear the silk and the sabelline!’

9

‘O mother dear, when we were thine,
We neither wore the silks nor the sabelline.

10

‘But out ye took a little pen-knife,
And ye parted us and our sweet life.

11

‘But now we're in the heavens hie,
And ye've the pains o hell to drie.’