THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS—J
[_]
Communicated by Dr George Birkbeck Hill, May 10, 1890,
as learned forty years before from a schoolfellow, who came
from the north of Somersetshire and sang it in the dialect
of that region. Given from memory.
1
‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own father
Coming over yonder stile to me.
2
‘Oh father, have you got any gold for me?
Any money for to pay me free?
To keep my body from the cold clay ground,
And my neck from the gallows-tree?’
3
‘Oh no, I've got no gold for thee,
No money for to pay thee free,
For I've come to see thee hangd this day,
And hangëd thou shalt be.’
4
‘Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Come prick my heart so sore;
If ever I get from the gallows-tree,
I'll never get there any more.’
[_]
[“The same verses are repeated, with mother, brother,
and sister substituted for father. At last the sweet-heart
comes. The two first verses are the same, and
the third and fourth as follows.”]
5
‘Oh yes, I've got some gold for thee,
Some money for to pay thee free;
I'll save thy body from the cold clay ground,
And thy neck from the gallows-tree.’
6
‘Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Don't prick my heart any more;
For now I've got from the gallows-tree
I'll never get there any more.’
