The Cruel Mother- Keesee (Va.) 1915 Davis B
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 133, Version B. Davis gives five fragmented versions, with version E, a single stanza. His notes follow.
This version was sung (almost exactly as given here) by Peggy Seeger in American Folks Songs for Children, Rounder Records 8001 (1977). The record was based on Ruth Crawford Seeger's 1940 book of the same name, and the liner notes are sketchy. They do mention that the full text of the song had seemed inappropriate when the book was written, so that apparently only a verse was included.
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.
THE CRUEL MOTHER- Text and melody Davis, 1929, p. 560 (Version B); text, p.134. Sung by Mrs. Virgie Mayhew Keesee, Pittsylvania County, Va., May 26, 1915; learned from her uncle, who learned it in Tennessee, Collected by Juliet Fauntleroy.
1. One day I was sitting in my father's hall
I saw three babes a-playing ball.
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
2. "Oh little babes if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in scarlet fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
3. "Oh, dear mother, when we were thine,
You neither put on our coarse nor fine."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
4. "Oh, little babes, if you could tell,
How long on earth have I to dwell?"
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!
5. "Seven long years on earth to dwell,
The balance of your time you'll spend in hell."
All day long and I love you all,
Down by the greenwood side-y oh!