The Cruel Mother- Beattie 1827 Kinloch; Child D
[This version from Miss C. Beattie appeared in George Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads p. 146 & 147. See Kinlock's original notes and text at the bottom of this page. Curiously Child has changed the first refrain:
from: All alone, and alonie;
to: All alone and alone ee
R. Matteson 2012]
Version D- 'The Cruel Mother'
a. Kinloch's MSS v, 103, in the handwriting of James Beattie.
b. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 46: from the recitation of Miss C. Beattie.
1 THERE lives a lady in London,
All alone and alone ee
She's gane wi bairn to the clerk's son.
Down by the green wood sae bonnie
2 She's taen her mantle her about,
She's gane aff to the gude green wood.
3 She's set her back untill an oak,
First it bowed and then it broke.
4 She's set ber back until a tree,
Bonny were the twa boys she did bear.
5 But she took out a little pen-knife,
And she parted them and their sweet life.
6 She's aff until her father's ha;
She was the lealest maiden that was amang them a'.
7 As she lookit oure the castle wa,
She spied twa bonnie boys playing at the ba.
8 'O if these two babes were mine,
They should wear the silk and the sabelline!'
9 'O mother dear, when we were thine,
We neither wore the silks nor the sabelline.
10 'But out ye took a little pen-knife,
And ye parted us and our sweet life.
11 'But now we're in the heavens hie,
And ye've the pains o hell to drie.'
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[From Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 46 & 47; The five footnotes were moved to the end]
THE CRUEL MOTHER
The following ballad seems to be allied, in incident at least, to that of " Lady Anne," in the 2d vol. of the Border Minstrelsy. Both are founded on the story of a cruel mother murdering the fruits of an illicit amour. Our criminal records of the 17th century, bear evidence of the frequent occurrence of this unnatural crime; for preventing which, the Scottish parliament in 1690, had recourse to a severe law; which declared that a mother concealing her pregnancy, and not calling in assistance at the birth, should be presumed guilty of murder, if the child were found dead or amissing. [1] If the crime was subversive of the most tender feelings of our nature, and was viewed as unnatural and barbarous, the law, enacted for its prevention, was strongly tinged with inhumanity. Yet, severe as this law was, more than a century elapsed before it was repealed: In 1809 the British legislature, viewing the matter with greater leniency, wisely preferred a punishment of imprisonment to that of death, for a presumptive crime.
The superstitious belief of the ghost of a murdered person haunting the slayer, is still prevalent among the vulgar; and the circumstance of a mother, bereaving her innocent babe of life, and the horror with which such a crime is viewed, might naturally give rise to the idea of her being continually haunted by its apparition.
THE CRUEL MOTHER
There lives a lady in London—
All alone, and alonie;
She's gane wi' bairn to the clerk's [2] son—
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
She has tane her mantle her about—
All alone, and alonie;
She's gane aff to the gude greenwud,
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
She has set her back until an aik—
All alone, and alonie;
First it bowed and syne it brake—
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
She has set her back until a brier—
All alone, and alonie;
Bonnie were the twa boys she did bear,
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
But out she's tane a little penknife—
All alone, and alonie;
And she's parted them and their sweet life,
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
She's aff unto her father's ha'—
All alone, and alonie;
She seem'd the lealest [3] maiden amang them a',
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
As she lookit our the castle wa'—
All alone, and alonie;
She spied twa bonnie boys playing at the ba'
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
"O an thae twa babes were mine"—
All alone, and alonie;
"They should wear the silk and the sabelline," [4]
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
"O mother dear, when we were thine"—
All alone, and alonie;
"We neither wore the silks nor the sabelline,"
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
" But out ye took a little penknife,—
All alone, and alonie;
"An ye parted us and our sweet life,
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
But now we're in the heavens hie-
All alone, and alonie;
And ye have the pains o' hell to dree"[5]—
Doun by the greenwud sae bonnie.
Footnotes:
1. It is perhaps unnecessary to remind the reader, that the tale of " the Heart of Midlothian", is chiefly founded on a breach of this law.
2. Clerk=The priest.
3. Lealest=truest
4. Sabelline=Sable-skin; French Sabetine.
5. Dree=suffer, endure.