The Cruel Mother- Moore (Ga.) 1909 Sharp B
[Not a local title. This version was not collected by Sharp but was sent to him from Mrs. Campbell's collection which was a collaboration with other members of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, in this case it was Isabel Rawn of the Martha Berry School of Georgia, who was not credited in either the 1917 or the 1932 edition of EFSSA. (ref. In the world of my ancestors: The Olive Dame Campbell Collection of Appalachian folk song, 1908-1916; Turner).
Sharp's notes follow:
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
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.
B. The Cruel Mother- Mrs. Moore (Ga.) 1909 Sharp B
1. Christmas time is rolling on,
When the nights are long and cool;
When three little babies come running down,
And run in their mother's room.
2 As she was going to her father's hall,
All down by the greenwood side,
She saw three little babes a-playing ball.
All down by the greenwood side.
3 One was Peter and the other was Paul,
All down, etc.
And the other was as naked as the hour it was born.
All down, etc.
4 O babes, O babes, if you were mine,
I'd dress you in the silk so fine.
5 O mother, O mother, when we were young,
You neither dressed us coarse nor fine.
6 You took your penknife out of your pocket,
And you pierced it through our tender hearts.
7 You wiped your penknife on your shoe,
And the more you wiped it the bloodier it grew.
8 You buried it under the marble stone,
You buried it under the marble stone.
9 The hell gates are open and you must go through,
The hell gates are open and you must go through.