Duke's Daughter- Percy; Late 1600s; Child O
[No title was supplied so I've titled it, Duke's Daughter. The offical title of the similar broadside ballad (Version P) is The Duke’s Daughter’s Cruelty, or, The Wonderful Apparition of Two Infants whom she Murther’d and Buried in a Forrest, for to hide her shame, printed by J Deacon at the Sign of the Angel in Guiltspur-street, London.
Both O and P are the oldest known versions and come from this similar source- The Duke’s Daughter’s Cruelty found in Percy's Papers. O is given "with no account of the derivation" and no date is offered. The ballads in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) by Thomas Percy (1729– 1811) date to c. 1650.
Becasue Kittredge dates P as c. 1690 is would be safe to assume this ballad of a similar antiquity.
At first this version- O was titled N in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads: Volume 2, Part 2 - Page 500- 1886. Later in the Additions and Corrections the mistake was rectified and it was retitled.
R. Matteson 2012]
Duke's Daughter Version O- Child 20 The Cruel Mother (2nd N)
Percy Papers, with no account of the derivation- Late 1600s
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 by the greenwood side a, side a
2. She loved him seven long years and a day,
All alone and alone a
Till at last she came big-bellied away.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
3. She set her back against a thorn,
All alone and alone a
And there she had two pretty babes born.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
4. She took out a penknife long and short,
All alone and alone a
And she pierc'd these pretty babes to the tender heart.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
5. So as she was walking in her father's hall,
All alone and alone a
She saw three pretty babes playing at ball.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
6. The one was clothed in purple, the other in pall,
All alone and alone a
And the other was cloathed in no cloths at all.
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
7. 'O pretty babes, pretty babes, will you be mine?
All alone and alone a
You shall be clothed in scarlet so fine,
And ye shall drink ale, beer, and wine.'
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a
8. 'We are three angels, as other angels be,
All alone and alone a
And the hotest place in hell is reserved for thee.'
Down by the greenwood side a, side a,
Down by the greenwood side a, side a