Lady Margaret- Motherwell c. 1825 Child K
[No title was supplied for this ballad so I use the first line. Motherwell knew the ballad under the title, The Cruel Mother. This is the 3rd version from Motherwell of Child's Cruel Mother versions. Child's source is:
Motherwell's MS., 1825 and after. A folio, almost entirely in Motherwell's hand, containing, besides some pieces not indexed, 228 indexed ballads. Most of these are from the West of Scotland, but not a few were given Motherwell by Buchan and are duplicates of copies which occur in Buchan's MSS. In the possession of Mr Malcolm Colquhoun Thomson, Glasgow.
R. Matteson 2012]
Lady Margaret (The Cruel Mother) Version K
Motherwell's MS., p. 186.
1 LADY MARGARET looked oer the castle wa,
Hey and a lo and a lilly O
And she saw twa bonnie babes playing at the ba.
Down by the green wood sidy O
2 'O pretty babes, an ye were mine,
I would dress you in the silks so fine.'
3 'O false mother, when we were thine,
Ye did not dress us in silks so finn.'
4 'O bonnie babes, an ye were mine,
I would feed you on the bread and wine.'
5 'O false mother, when we were thine,
Ye did not feed us on the bread and the wine.'
* * * * *
6 'Seven years a fish in the sea,
And seven years a bird in the tree.
7 'Seven years to ring a bell,
And seven years porter in hell.'