There Was a Lady Lived in York- Cole (PA) 1929
[From Pennsylvania Songs and Legends; Korson p. 38; Notes by Korson (Bayard) follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
In The Cruel Mother, an ancient ballad formerly well known in Pennsylvania, a girl kills and buries her babies, first endeavoring to "lay" their ghost, by tying the bodies hand and foot. But the little ghosts, return to earth and confront their mother, who does not know them until they speak up and denounce her. In its mixture of human Pathos and supernatural weirdness, this is undoubtedly one of the most haunting ballads in the language. The singer of this version was one of the old-fashioned, unlicensed farriers of the countryside, many of whom used music in their treatments as well as knowledge and horse sense. To this tune the ballad was most often sung in southwestern Pennsylvania.
There Was a Lady Lived in York- (Sung by Peter Cole in Greene County, 1929. Recorded by Samuel Bayard.)
1. There was lady who live in York
Tra la lee and a lidey O,
She fell in love with her father's clerk,
Down by the green-wood sidey.
2. She leant herself against an oak,
Tra la lee and a lidey O,
And first it bent, and then it broke,
Down by the greenwood sidey O.
3. She leant herself against a tree,
And there she had her misery.
4. She leant herself against a thorn,
And there's where these two babes were born.
5. She pulled out her little penknife;
She pierced them through their tender hearts.
6. She pulled out her white handkerchief;
She bound them up both head and foot.
7. She buried them under a marble stone,
And then returned to her merry maid's home.
8. As she sat in her father's hall,
She saw these two babes playing ball.
9. Says she, Pretty babes, if you were mine,
I'd dress you in the silk so fine.
10. Say, dear mother, when we were thine,
You neither dressed us coarse nor fine.
11. But you pulled our your little penknife;
You pierced it through our tender hearts.
12. Then you pulled out your white handkerchief;
You bound us up both head and foot.
13. You buried us under a marble stone,
And then returned to your merry maid's home.
14. Seven years to wash and wring,
Seven more to card and spin.
15. Seven more to ring them bells,
Tra la lee and a lidey O,
Seven more to serve in hell,
Down by the greenwood sidey O.