US & Canadian Versions: 20. The Cruel Mother
[Although Child 20, The Cruel Mother, was never popular in the US or Canada, more than a dozen versions were collected by Cecil Sharp from 1916-1918 in the Appalachian Mountain region and the 1932 edition of EFSSA has A-M with music and several good texts. Davis in his 1929 book, Traditional Ballads of Virginia adds 4 texts and Cox has 3 texts in his Folk-Song of the South. It was first mentioned in the Appalachians in the 1906 Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Volume 2 by Folk-Song Society (Great Britain). The ballad next appeared in the 1911 book, A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-songs by Hubert Gibson Shearin, Josiah Henry Combs: "The Greenwood Side (Three Little Babes), ii, 4a 3b 4c 3b, 9: Variants of The Cruel Mother, Child, No. 20." They don't not provide any text or specific versions.
The ballad was also known in Maine (New England) and along the coast of Canada with versions found in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland by Mackenzie, Greenfield, Karpeles, Creighton and others. Barry published 6 versions in British Ballads From Maine and Flanders gave six more from New England (Ancient Ballads), mostly fragments.
The lack of popularity and it's gradual disappearance in the 1900s from tradition is surely due to the subject matter, a union out of wedlock and matricide. This ballad was not sung to children around the hearth. Dusenberry would not sing it in front of the child who was present when Randolph collected it from her. The Cruel Mother was considered "too smutty to repeat" by one informant (Barry E). Numerous other informants made similar comments. Because of the gruesome subject the ballad, it was not printed as a broadside in the US and was spread entirely by oral circulation. It seems that the ballad had, for the most part, vanished from tradition by the 1940s and 50s in the US and Canada. The nearly 70 traditional versions in my collection from North America, remnants of the early settlers are all that remain.
The importance of the illegitimacy of her relationship with the father's clerk is overlooked in most US versions. The motive for the mother's murder of her children is that they are illegitimate- born from a relationship with her father's clerk. It is the shame of the illegitimate children that both the mother and children must face that is the motive for the deed. In the ballad, there is no sympathy for the predicament of the mother. Instead, there is a general lack of understanding by the informants because the exposition of the story is not properly developed (for an exception, see Mansfield A, where the motive is fairly clear). With most ballad texts (North American or British) it seems that suddenly after giving birth, the mother, without warning or reason, slays her young children-- a horrific crime.
In BBM Barry concludes that the US version are as old or older than the Child versions (the broadside dates c. 1690). Clearly the ballad was found from settlers in New England (Maine) and the Canada Maritime regions as well as the settlement in Virginia (which dates earlier, back to 1609 with many settlers coming in the mid-1600s). Grandmother Carr whose version was learned by her granddaughter was born in 1793 so clearly we can verify a date back to the 1700s for this ballad. It would be safe to assume a date back to the 1600s according to Barry: "There is left the almost inevitable conclusion that they were introduced into America in the first great emigration, before 1650. The thesis might be hard to prove; but it is equally hard to disprove." [BBM 1929]
The Cruel Mother is not a local title- most local titles are a variation of "Greenwood Side" or have "Greenwood" in the title. Clearly Greenwood Sidey= Greenwood Siding, each one is an alternative spelling for the other- both sounding nearly the same. I've kept the "Cruel Mother" title in most cases, rather than change it.
Several versions date back to the 1800s because the ballad, collected in the early 1900s, was learned "forty years ago." In other cases, for instance the Walter family, they dated it 1820 because it was known to be sung by members of the family one hundred years before it was collected (1920). The old English and Scottish ballads were bought to North America in the 1600s and 1700s when immigrants settled here.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CONTENTS: Individual version are attached to this page on left hand column. Eventually all titles will have links and may be accessed on this page.
1) The Green Woods of Si-bo-ney-o: White (ME) c1810- From British Ballads from Maine, version C. This is similar to her husband's version (version B) version and it is unknown if they are from the same source (which is an oversight by Barry and all)- read notes below. When her husband Captain White was in the military in 1915, he (and I assume they) lived at Murray on Prince Edwards Island. Barry has assigned a date of circa 1810
2) Greenwood Siding- Walters (NL) 1820 Greenleaf B- From Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland- Greenleaf and Mansfield 1933, version B. The two refrains follow the stanza lines. Notes by Kittredge follow. The family date of 1820 is accepted.
3) The Cruel Mother- Montague (MA) c1836 Flanders D
Down by the Greenwood Side- Carr (ME) pre1868
The Lady of York- Devlin (NY-PA) c1875 Lomax
The Cruel Mother- Griffin (GA-FL) pre1876 Morris
Down By the Greenwood Sidey- Delorme (NY) c1890
The Cruel Mother- Martin (KY) 1905 JFFS
The Cruel Mother- Moore (Ga.) 1909 Sharp B
The Greenwood Siding- Bigney (Nova Scotia) 1911
Two Little Babes- McCullough (MO-OK) 1913 Moore A
The Cruel Mother- Seoane (Va.) 1914 Davis D
The Cruel Mother- (SC-KY) Jones 1914
The Greenwood Side- (KY) c.1914 McGill
Down by the Greenwood Side- Fogg (WV) 1915
The Cruel Mother- Crawford (Va.) 1915 Davis A
The Cruel Mother- Keesee (Va.) 1915 Davis B
The Greenwood Siding- Cunningham (WV) 1915
The Lady of York- White (ME) pre1915 Barry B
Down by the Greenwood Side- Paugh (WV) 1916
The Cruel Mother- Davis (Va.) 1916 Davis C
The Cruel Mother- Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Greenwood Sidey- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp C
The Cruel Mother- Chisholm (VA) 1916 Sharp D
The Cruel Mother- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp E
The Cruel Mother- Kilburn (KY) 1917 Sharp F
The Cruel Mother- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp G
The Cruel Mother- Gibson (NC) 1918 Sharp H
The Cruel Mother- Chisholm (VA) 1918 Sharp I
The Cruel Mother- Roberts (VA) 1918 Sharp J
The Cruel Mother- Huff (KY) 1917 Sharp K
The Cruel Mother- Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp L
The Cruel Mother- Snipes (NC) 1918 Sharp M
The Cruel Mother- Newcomb (OK) c1920 Moore B
Greenwood Sidey- Beal (ME) 1921 Barry F
The Cruel Mother- Summer (OH) c1922 Eddy
Down By The Greenwood Side- Nash (NY) 1927
Greenwood Sidey- Gott (ME) 1927 Barry E
The Cruel Mother- Corbett (NL) 1929 Karpeles A
The Cruel Mother- McCabe (NL) 1929 Karpeles C
The Cruel Mother- Snow (NL) 1929 Karpeles F
There Was a Lady Lived in York- Cole (PA) 1929
The Cruel Mother- W. Snow (NL) 1929 Karpeles G
Down By the Greenwood Side- Dusenbury (Ark) 1930
The Cruel Mother- Harmon (TN) 1930 Henry
Fair Flowers of Helio- Walsh (NL) 1930 Greenleaf A
The Cruel Mother- Coombs (NL) 1930 Karpeles B
The Cruel Mother- Courage (NL) 1930 Karpeles D
The Cruel Mother- Sims (NL) 1930 Karpeles E
The Cruel Mother- Henneberry (Nova Scotia) pre1932
The Cruel Mother- Keesee (VA) 1932 Davis AA
Down by the Greenwood Side-e-o: Millet (ME) 1934
The Lady of York- Netherly (TN) 1934 Niles B
The Cruel Mother- McAllister (VA) 1935 Wilkinson
The Cruel Mother- Davis (VA) 1935 Wilkinson B
Three Little Babies- Smith (NC) 1936 Niles A
Down By The Greenwood Side- Ramsay (NY) 1939
Greenwood Side-y: Erskine (CT) 1939 Flanders E
The Cruel Mother- Smith (Maine) 1940 Flanders
The Cruel Mother- Smith (CT) pre1949 Flanders A
The Cruel Mother- Smith (NS) 1950 Creighton A
The Cruel Mother- Duncan (NS) 1950 Creighton B
The Cruel Mother- D. Smith (NS) 1950 Creighton C
The Cruel Mother- Roast (NS) 1950 Creighton D
The Cruel Mother- Henderson (ME) 1954 Flanders C
The Cruel Mother- Paul Clayton (Va.) 1956
Down by the Greenwood Shady- Yale (NY) 1958
Down by the Greenwood Side- Brewer (Ark.) 1958
The Babes In The Greenwood- Dalton (NL) 1960
There Was A Girl- Kelly (NB) 1961 Manny/Wilson
Down in the Greenwood's Valley-(KY) 1967 Jameson
The Cruel Mother- Hedy West (GA) 1967 REC
Down By the Greenwood Sidee- Manthe (WV) 1975
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First US published Version: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Volume 2, Issues 6-9
By Folk-Song Society (Great Britain)
Lucy Broadwood:
Miss Esther White, who communicates this song, writes that Mrs. A. R. Martin learned it as a child from the singing of her great-aunt, and that "lately she heard it, sung by a poor 'mountain white' child in the North Carolina Mountains." Mrs. Martin was unable to send more than the verse here printed. It corresponds most closely with one in a version quoted by Child from the " Motherwell MS." and which Motherwell "noted from Agnes Laird, Kilbarchan, in 1S25."
Mrs. Martin's tune should be compared with that of " Brave Earl Brand " in Reay and Stokoe's Songs 0/ Northern England, and "Hynde Home" in Motherwell's Minstrelsy.
[The Cruel Mother]- Submitted by White, JFSS, II (1905), p. 109; Sung by Mrs. A. R. Martin, Anchorage, Ky.
"My dear little children, if you were mine,
All alone, and aloney O!
I'd dress you up in silk so fine
Down by the green-woody sidev, O!"
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Sharp EFSSA, 1932 Notes; No. 10. The Cruel Mother:
Texts without tunes :—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 20. C. Burne's Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 540. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 295. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxv. 183 ; xxxii. 503. Texts with tunes:—Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 44 and Appendix. Child, v. 413. Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 105 and 107. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 109; iii. 70. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 98 (also published in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, Series 1, p. 35, and One Hundred English Folk Songs, p. 35). Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 11. Dick's Songs of
Robert Burns, p. 347. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 29 and 522. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 3. British Ballads from Maine, p. 80. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 133 and 560. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 83.
The tune of version B is that of The Wife of Usher Well, No. 22. In version I there appears to be a change of mode from Dorian to Mixolydian. The singer is a brother of Mr. W. B. Chisholm of Woodridge, who sang version D. Version A is published in Ballads (School Songs, Book 261), Novello & Co., London, and version E in Folk Songs of English Origin, 2nd Series—both with pianoforte accompaniment.
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BRITISH BALLADS FROM MAINE: THE CRUEL MOTHER (Child 20) 1929; Barry, Ecksorm, Smyth Notes:
Traces of "The Cruel Mother" were found on Islesford, but no text. Mrs. Fred W. Morse said that she had heard it in Ireland in her childhood, and that since she had been in Islesford she had heard Mrs. Norah Gilley, formerly of Baker Island, sing it; she recalled hearing a man remark of the song: "It's all darned foolishness." Others besides Mrs. Morse remembered that they had heard it sung on the islands.
We have found four excellent texts and two good fragments of "The Cruel Mother" in Maine. Fragment C is undoubtedly from Scotland, and, judging from the refrain, the B-text probably came from there also. One of the other texts was learned from Irish girls, but it shows no great peculiarities. Indeed, Mrs. Morse's statement that, although she heard it sung in Ireland a good many times, it was always in English and never in Gaelic, implies that the Irish form was imported from England. In Nova Scotia, Professor Mackenzie found it under the name of "The Greenwood Siding," which is closely similar to the common name for the song in Maine. Perhaps attention should be called to the fact that the people of maritime Maine and of parts of Nova Scotia are largely of the same stock. Before the American Revolution, over-populated Cape Cod sent out many bodies of emigrants to the eastward; and songs from widely separated points along the eastern coast may have come from the same village, or even the same hearthstone, on Cape Cod a century and a half ago.
The Maine texts found are sufficiently similar not to need any extended comparison with each other. Most of the variations can be accounted for as omissions. It is possible to take the stanzas we have and by arranging them in order to make one long ballad of twenty-three verses, which would not only include all our Maine texts, but all Professor Cox found in the South and several of Professor Child's texts, which are largely fragmentary. Such an arrangement, although not assuming to be the original ballad, has a working value to a collector, who can fit his fragments into place by following the tabulation: it is perhaps as justifiable a reconstruction as the creation of an extinct animal from a fossil bone.
G. "The Cruel Mother." reconstructed from Maine texts, to show the logical succession of the stanzas found here.
I There was a lady lived in York,
She fell in love with her father's clerk.
2 She leaned her back against an oak;
First it bent and then it broke.
3. She leaned her back against a thorn,
And there those two pretty babes were born.
4 She took her garter off her leg,
She tied those babes both thumb and leg.
5 She took her penknife, keen and sharp,
She pierced those pretty babes to the heart.
6 She washed her penknife in the brook
And the more she washed it the redder its look.
7 She wiped her penknife on the clay,
And there she wiped the stains away.
8 She dug a grave both long and deep,
She lay-ed those pretty babes in for to sleep.
9 She covered them with marble stones,
[She prayed to God it would never be known.]
10 She covered them over with the oak leaves,
She prayed to God it would never be known.
11 When she returned to her father's farm,
She spied those pretty babes arm in arm.
12 When she returned to her father's hall,
She spied those pretty babes playing fun.
1g One was dressed in silk so fine,
The other stood naked to the wind.
14 "Babe, oh, babe, if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in silk so fine."
15 "O mother, O,mother, I once was thine,
You did not dress us in silk so fine.
16. "Ma'am, O Ma'am, when I was yours,
You dressed us up in bloody gore.
17 "You took a penknife, keen and sharp,
And you pierced it to our infant heart.
18 "You dug a grave full seven feet deep,
It was there you laid us down to sleep.
19 "You covered us over with the oak leaves,
And you prayed to God it would never be known."
20 "Babe, oh, Babe, it's you can tell,
Whether I'm fit for Heaven or Hell."
21 "Seven long years digging a ditch,
Seven long years burning a bush,
22 "Seven long years ringing a bell,
And forever and ever you'll be burning in Hell.
24 "But Heaven is high and Hell is low,
And when you die to Hell you'll go."
In this arrangement the more unusual stanzas are brought out strongly. There are in Mrs. Young's text two stanzas about the washing and wiping of the knife, not found in the other texts. These details, however, must have been originally in the text of Child Q, which has now only the stanza about wiping the knife:
She wiped. the penknife in the sludge;
The more she wiped it, the more the blood showed. (III, 502)
Miss Anne G. Gilchrist, the expert English authority upon folklore, in the Journal of the English Folk-Song Society, VI, 80-85, speaking of magic stains which cannot be washed away by any amount of scouring, but remain to reveal the criminal (the case of Lady Macbeth is a familiar instance), says that in one of Cecil J. Sharp's unpublished*
* An error. This was printed in Campbell and Sharp, English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians, as text B 7.
texts of this ballad, from Georgia, there is this magic stain. The Maine text and the Georgia text, and remotely also child Q, must be allied and by a bond which does not appear elsewhere. Another coincidence is the "garter stanza." There is nothing like it in the Child variants. But it is found in Cox B, from West Virginia. And undoubtedly it is very old. In the child texts, in murdering her babes the mother uses satin from her head (twice), muslin from her head (once), filleting from her head (once), ribbons from her head (three times), and once her belt. But the garter is never used. At this date the word needs explanation. Before rubber elastic was introduced, the garters of women were narrow strips of knitted wool about an inch wide and nearly four feet long, which were wound about the leg below the knee three times, without tying the ends being tucked under. It was with garters of this sort that the "unfortunate Miss Bailey" of the old song hanged herself. Now there seems no possible way in which such a detail could be found both in the mountains of West Virginia and upon the outer islands of the Maine coast, except by being carried by emigrants to both sections at a time when such garters were in use in England. Apparently she strangles the babes. In Child J, we find:
She ta'en the ribbon frae her head.,
An hankit their necks till they waur dead.
"Ye tuik the ribbon aff your head,
An' hankit our necks till we waur dead."
But in most of the Child versions, she stabs them with a penknife as in B, C, D, E, F, N, O, P, Q. Apparently in Child H, she buries them alive:
She took the ribbons off her head,
She tied the little babes hand and feet,
She howkit a hole before the sun,
She's laid these three bonnie babes in.
In eight of the Child versions, the cruel mother binds her babes, though only in one does she strangle them. The binding appears to have a peculiar significance. Apparently it is to prevent the ghosts of the babes from returning to reveal her shame and her crime. In L. C. Wimberley's Folk-Lore on English and Scottish Ballads (p. 25a) there is a reference to this ballad. "It seems not improbable, however, that in The Cruel Mother we find an instance of barring the ghost-this by fettering the limbs of the dead. Binding or tying the hands of the dead, in order to prevent the ghost from walking is a common practice among many peoples and it is interesting to note in connection with the babe ghosts of our ballad that the spirits of infants which die under three years are thought by the Manipuris to be extremely malicious." To those who believed thus, a ballad like this would have a haunting power; for these little accusing ghosts, in spite of being bound, came back and condemned her.
Points of folk-belief like this indicate great age in ballads, so that no one can tell the manner of their dispersion. But in this new country into which all of them must have been introduced within comparatively recent times, we have gauges for determining the direction and the date of their diffusion. Finding the "garter stanza" in both Maine and West Virginia indicates that the ballad ca.me over at a time when the tide of emigration split and there were two streams, one directed to Virginia, the other to New England. Similarly, Grandmother Carr, born in Maine in 1793, would not have been singing of the magic stain on the penknife, as the hill people of Georgia are singing it, unless that stanza was current in England when the stream of emigration was dividing, north and south. The Maine texts of "The Cruel Mother" and "The Two Brothers" are certainly as old as those reported from the Appalachian Mountains. They would seem to be older than most of Professor Child's texts, since they preserve details which have dropped out of his.
The Child texts which ours most nearly resemble are P, from a broadside called 'The Duke's Daughter's Cruelty," and Q, a. Shropshire gypsy version, the only text in Child having the stanza about wiping the knife. The date of P is about 1690. The burden is unlike either of our burdens and the text appears to be somewhat later. The 1690 broadside may have been revamped with a new title in the endeavor to make quick sales to those who would buy a supposedly new song. Comparing the nineteen texts and fragments printed by Professor Child, we find that our six texts and fragments have six stanzas, including repeats by the babes, which are not in any of his texts. He has no mention of stanzas 4, 6,10, 16, 19, and 21 of our reconstructed version, and 11 appears only in part in his Q-text. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the texts now being recovered in America are older in many instances than those which were known to Professor Child from foreign sources. If our tests cannot be traced to any child text, and if there is no American reprint known, it must follow that they are purely traditional. It must follow that the similar Maine texts-and the same would be true of all northern texts are at least as old as those in the South. Internal evidence proves them not similar, but the same, in many instances. There is left the almost inevitable conclusion that they were introduced into America in the first great emigration, before 1650. The thesis might be hard to prove; but it is equally hard to disprove.
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BFSSNE Volume 8; British Ballads, notes Barry:
THE CRUEL MOTHER (Child 20)
Maine I. "Down by the Greenwood Side-e-o." Text and melody sent in, January 26, 1934, by Mrs. Susan M. Lewis, Brownville, Maine, as sung by Fannie Millett, of Brownville, later, Mrs. Fannie Millett Bradman.
1. As I was pacing father's hall,
All alone, aloney-o;
I saw three infants playing ball,
Down by the greenwood lide-e-o.
2 One's name was Peter, and the other's name was Paul,
And the other little infant had no name at all.
3 Said I to this infant, "Will you be mine?
I'll dress you in silks and satins fine."
4 Then said this infant, "When I was thine,
You dressed me in neither coarse nor fine."
5 Then she took her pen-knife long and sharp,
And pierced it through his tender heart.
6 And then she dug a little grave,
and neither sheet, nor blanket gave.
7 Then she stuck her pen-knife in the clay,
And there it sticks to this very day.
We suspect that originally, stanzas 5-7, describing the murder, preceded stanzas 1-4, describing the apparition of the slain infant, guided to heaven by St. Peter and Paul, in the guise of children (cf. Dives and Lazarus, 10-11). Mrs. Lewis's version of this fascinating old ballad is both textually and musically unique in Northern tradition. None of Child's nineteen versions mention the two saints: of American texts beside Maine I, only Sharp-Karpeles B, B; L, 2, from Georgia and North Carolina respectively, have this trait. A number of versions, both old-country and American, have three babes in the story, due to misunderstanding of the part of the saints in guiding the unbaptised, and therefore nameless infant whose salvation has been effected by "baptism in its own blood." Only Maine I makes the slain babe nameless; Sharp-Karpeles B, L, make it naked. Stanza 7 is a link between Maine I and the Super Family version (Maine A, 6, British Ballads from Maine, p. 81), Child Q (ESPB., III, 502), Sharp-Karpeles B, Newfoundland B, 6 (Greenleaf Mansfield, p. 16), Creighton, A, 8-9 (Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, p. 4).
The melody is a set of the Balgonie form of the Scando-Scotic after Biniorie, belonging originally to The Two Sisters (FSSNE, Bulletin B, p. lB; 2, p. 11; cf. Greig, Last Leaves, p. 22); by its form it appears as a connecting link with the music to the Scoto-Irish tradition of the same ballad. We have already called attention to such arbitrary tune-substitution, with textual re-creation as a by-product, in the case of the "Edinburgh" type of Scottish tradition of The Two Sisters (FSSNE., Bulletin 3, pp. 13-14), sung to an air belonging originally to The Cruel Mother. The Scando-Scotic air associated with the "Binnorie,' type, will not fit the text of the "Edinburgh" type. So strongly is ballad tradition indivldualised against the habit-pattern of the folk.
The eyidence is cumulative that the history of The Cruel Mother is not to be separated from that of The Maid, and the Palmer (Child 21) which belongs to the Mary Magdalene cycle. The Magdalene, whose sins include infanticide, is saved by penance, as is the cruel mother in Miss Creighton's unique text (op.cit., p. 5, stanza 17). Moreover, the burial under oak leaves, Maine B, 4, lO, is a clear reminiscence of the Magdalene's vision of the leaves fouling the water which she offers to her Lord (Child, ESPB., I, 230). The Reformation effected a revolution in popular religious concepts: its influence on balladry is a subject much needing investigation.
P. B.
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The Cruel Mother; Flanders, Ancient Ballads p. 230-238, Notes by Coffin:
(Child 20)
All the Flanders versions of this song are fragments, and not very clear fragments at that. However, it is obvious from these scraps that a pretty complete "Cruel Mother" has been known in New England. The A text preserves the idea that the children are ghosts, the D fragment tells who the woman's lover was, and tJre A version as well as the E and F stanzas tell of the childbirth. of course, Phillips Barry (British Ballads from Maine, 80 f.) prints a number of full New England versions in which the mother bears her father's clerk two or so illegitimate children, murders the babies with a penknife, and then buries their bodies.
Later, when she sees some children playing ball, she tells them of the things she would do for them if they were her own. They readily inform her they were once hers and weren't treated any too well. This is the Child A-H form of the ballad and is well known in the United States. Child 20 is also common to Britain, especially Scotland, and to Denmark and Germany as well, though its form is more often incomplete than not. Confusions, such as the one in Flanders B-C where the mother seems to murder the children after meeting them by the greenwood side, are frequent in this song, particularly in Britain. Sometimes, as in Child I-L, additional stanzas describing penance the woman must do for the crime appear.
Originally the ballad preserves various medieval murder and burial superstitions that are discussed in L. C. Wimberly's Folklore in the English and, Scottish Ballads ([Chicago-, 1928], 254) and by Cox, Sharp, and other collectors in their notes. The song has frequently borrowed from other ballads such as "The wife of Usher's well (Child 79), "The Maid and the Palmer" (Child 21), and perhaps "Dives and Lazarus" (child 56). see coffin, 51, for references to such interchanges.
A start or a bibliography can be had by consulting Coffin, 50-51 (American); Dean-smith, 61 (English); Greig and Keith, 21-22, and Ord, 459 (Scottish); and Child; notes, I, 218 f.
The three tunes given here belong to two families: The Lewis tune fits in with BC, group A, while the Smith and Delorme tunes seem to be outside the usual child 20 tradition and fit in better with runes used in Child 13.
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin- 1950
20. THE CRUEL MOTHER
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, So / Boletin Latino Americano de Musica, V, 279 / BFSSNE, VIII, 7 / Creighton, Sgs Bids N Sc, 3 / Cox, F-S South, 29 / Cox, W Va School Journal and Educator, XLVI, 64 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 133 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 24 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 15 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 47 / Jones, F-L Mich, 5 / JAFL, XXV 183 ; XXXII, 503 / JFSS, II, 109 / Kennedy, Cultural Effects, 320 / MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs NSc, 12 / MacKenzie, Quest Bid, 104 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 83 / Morris, F-S Fla, 384 / NTFLO, IV, #1, 36/Niles, Blds Crls Tgc Lgds, 18 / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 73 / Randolph, The
Ozarks, 185 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 169 / SharpC, Eng F-S SoAplchns, / SharpK, EngF-S So Aplchns, I, 57 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 7 / SFLQ, VIII, 139 / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 6 / Thompson, Bdy Bts Brtchs, 447 / Va FLS Bull, #s 3 5. Korson, Pa Sgs Lgds, 38.
Local Titles: Down by the Greenwood Side (Shady), Fair Flowers of Helio, Greenwood Side, Greenwood Society, The Cruel Mother, The Greenwood Siding, The Green Woods of Siboney-O, The Lady of York, The Three Little Babes, There Was a Lady Lived in York.
Story Types: A: "Leaning her back against a thorn", a woman bears her father's clerk two (or more) illegitimate children. These babies she murders with a pen-knife, buries, and deserts. Later, she sees some children playing ball. She tells them that if they were hers she would treat them in fine style. However, they inform her that they are the children she bore and murdered and usually tell her she is fated to dwell in Hell.
Examples: Barry (A); Cox, F-S South (A); Davis (A).
B : Sometimes an additional group of stanzas is found on a Type A version in which the mother is told the penance she must do for her crime. She must spend twenty-one years ringing a bell and existing in various bestial forms. In some texts the mother expresses a preference for such a fate over that of going to Hell.
Examples: Creighton; MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc; Thompson.
Discussion: The full story of this song frequently appears in American texts, although there are many that omit the antecedent action which reveals who the girl's lover is and the details of the birth and crime. Those that are wholly dialogue are clear enough if the original story is known. Type A stories are similar to the Child A H texts, while Type B versions follow Child I-L.
There is a great deal of folk superstition included in the various American texts of the ballad. The binding of the children's feet to keep the ghosts from walking is discussed in L. C. Wimberly's Folk-Lore in the English and Scottish Ballads, 254. (See Child H; Cox, F-S South, B; SharpK, F; and SFLQ, XIII, 139 for examples). Many versions contain a c *MacBethian" attempt to wash the blood from the knife after the crime, and there is an attempt to throw the knife away which results in its coming nearer and
nearer in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. (See Creighton and MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc.) The idea that the mother can gain redemption by being a fish, a beast, and a belltoller, etc. for seven years has come into this song from The Maid and the f aimer (Child 21). See Child, I, 218 and my Type B.
Zielonko, Some American Variants of Child Ballads, goff. discusses the minor variations and distribution (check particularly in this connection the "garter" discussion by Barry in Brit Bids Me, 91 ff .) in American versions, while Davis, Trd Bid Fa, and Cox, F-S South, carefully relate their texts to those in Child. SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, B seems to take its initial stanza from The Wife of Usher's Well (79) and, with his L and BFSSNE, VIII, 7 contains the names Peter and Paul. The Thompson, Bdy Bts Brtchs text implies that poverty is one of the reasons for the killing of the children.
Zielonko, op. cit., 63, in her discussion of 20, notes that the American methods of telling the story are three in number, as is the case with the Child texts: direct narrative (Child A C, F I and Barry A, C, F); indirect narrative (Child K L and Davis A B); and a combination of the two methods (Child D, E, J, N and Barry B). See also Barry's discussion in BFSSNE, VIII, 7 concerning the number of children and the saints, traits which may reveal influence from Dives and Lazarus (56).
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Pennsylvania Songs and Legends; Korson p. 38:
There Was a Lady Lived in York
(Sung by Peter Cole in Greene County, 1929. Recorded by Samuel Bayard.)
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.
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 Ia 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.
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So condensed is the present text that it may not be clear that the babes are ghosts. The antecedent folklore detail of the mother's binding of the hands and feet of the babes so as to prevent their ghosts from walking, found in several Child texts (C, F, H, I) and in some American texts (see Cox B, p. 30; Sharp-Karpeles A, F, G, Vol. I, 56, 59 ; etc. ), does not appear it the present text or in any other Virginia text. (See Wimberly, pp. 254-55:) The Virginia version is not so detailed about the mother's punishment as some texts, but it does predict hell for her after a normal folklore period of "seven long years on earth."
Bronson (I, 270-90) has brought together a total of fifty-six tunes (with texts), and comments: "For the number of beautiful
melodic variation, on a basically constant rhythmic pattern, this ballad is exceptional. The binding element of the rhythmical design appears to have been the interlaced refrain at the second and fourth lines." He divides the tunes into five groups, which can only be satisfactorily distinguished by detailed musical technicalities not to be repeated here.
"The Cruel Mother." phonograph record (aluminum) made by Mr. A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by Abner Keesee, of Altavista, Va. Campbell County. August 4, 1932. Text transcribed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by Winston Wilkinson. "A fine tune, with a wide pitch range and interesting structure" (E. C. Mead).
THE CRUEL MOTHER
One day I was sitting in my father's hall,
A11 day long and I love thee O,
I saw three babes a-playing their ball,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two were just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you was mine,
All day long and I love thee O,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
One was dressed in scarlet fine,
All day long and I love thee O,
The other two was just like they was born,
Down by the greenwood sidie O.
"O little babes, if you can tell,
All day long and I love thee O,
How long on earth am I to dwell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O ?"
"Seven long years on earth you'll dwell,
All day long and I love thee O,
The balance of your time you will spend it in hell,
Down by the greenwood sidie O."
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Missing versions:
1. Seeger, Ruth Crawford (eds.) / American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Sof (1948), p 87
2. Hunter, Max. Ozark Mountain Folksongs, Folk Legacy FSA 011, Cas (1963), trk# B.05 (This is probably a cover of Pearl Brewer's version)
3. MacKinnon, Raun. American Folk Songs, Parkway SP 7024, LP (1962), trk# B.07 (Greenwood Side/Sidey-O)