THE CRUEL MOTHER—O
[_]
Percy Papers, with no account of the derivation.
1
There was a duke's daughter lived at York,
All alone and alone a
And she fell in love with her father's clarke.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down, etc.
2
She loved him seven long years and a day,
Till at last she came big-bellied away.
3
She set her back against a thorn,
And there she had two pretty babes born.
4
She took out a penknife long and short,
And she pierc'd these pretty babes to the tender heart.
5
So as she was walking in her father's hall,
She saw three pretty babes playing at ball.
6
The one was clothed in purple, the other in pall,
And the other was cloathed in no cloths at all.
7
‘O pretty babes, pretty babes, will you be mine?
You shall be clothed in scarlet so fine,
And ye shall drink ale, beer and wine.’
8
‘We are three angels, as other angels be,
And the hotest place in hell is reserved for thee.’
