The Cruel Mother- Davis (Va.) 1916 Davis C
[Not a local title. From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 133, Version C. 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.
C. "The Cruel Mother." Collected by Miss Martha M. Davis, of Harrisonburg, Va. sung by a mountain woman. Rockingham County. May 9, 1916. With music. "Words and air collected from a woman who learned them from her grandmother, an illiterate old body who died many years ago," (Miss Davis).
1 As Lily was walking out on the strand,
O, lily of the lowlands! [1]
Out come two babes a-playing in the sand,
Down by the greenwood side.
2 "O, little babes, if you were mine,"
O, lily of the lowlands!
"I'd dress you up in silks so fine,"
Down by the greenwood side.
3 "O mother, O mother, when we were thine,"
O, lily of the lowlands!
"You neither gave us coarse nor fine,"
Down by the greenwood side.
4 "You buried us here beneath the ground,"
O, lily of the lowlands!
"You buried us without a sheet or a gown,"
Down by the greenwood side.
1. The refrain seems to be a significant part of the story.