The Cruel Mother- Seoane (Va.) 1914 Davis D
[Cruel Mother is not a local title. From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 133, Version D. Davis gives five fragmented versions, with version E, a single stanza. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE CRUEL MOTHER
(Child, No. 20)
THE story of the full ballad is briefly recounted by Child, as follows: "A young woman, who passes for a leal maiden, gives birth to two babes, puts them to death with a penknife, and buries them, or, ties them hand and feet and buries them alive. She afterward sees two pretty boys, and exclaims that if they were hers she would treat them most tenderly. They make answer that when they were hers they were differently treated, rehearse what she had done, and inform or threaten her that hell shall be her portion." The Virginia variants, several of which are mere fragments, omit all antecedent action about the identity of the young man and details of the birth and of the crime. They consist entirely of the dialogue between the cruel mother and the two babes whom she subsequently meets, in which the antecedent action is sufficiently indicated. This absence of preliminary- narrative, plus similarity of refrain, connects the Virginia texts with the Child series K, L, M, N. "The Cruel Mother" seems to be the usual title of the ballad, but it is also known in Virginia as "The Three Little Babes" and " Greenwood Side."
For American texts, see Bullein, Nos. 3-5; Campbell and Sharp, No. 9 (North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs, II, No. I); Cox, No. 5 and p. 522, 3 texts, melody); Jones, p.301 (fragment); Journal, XXV, 183 (Mackenzie, Nova Scotia); McGill, p. 83; Mackenzie, p. 104; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 3, and p. 39, (fragment and melody); Shearin, p. 4;
Shearin and Combs, p. 7. For additional references see Cox, p. 29; Journal, XXX, 293.
D. "Cruel Mother" or "Three Little Babes" or "Greenwood side." collected by Miss Corita G. Seoane, of Merrifield, Va. Fairfax County. January 10, 1914.
1 "O Lord, babes, if you were mine
I would dress you up in silk so fine."
2 "False-heart mother, when thee[1] were thine,
You neither dressed us coarse nor fine.
3 "You took a knife both keen and sharp
And pierced it through our little heart."
4 "You dug a grave both wide and deep
And wrapped us in a winding sheet,
5 And buried us a way down in the greenwood side."
1. "thee" should evidently be "we" but the manuscript is unmistakable.